Day 31

Sideshow Bob: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! No truth-handler you! I deride your truth handling abilities!"

Finished breakfast about 9:30, and started on my assignment straight away. However, I did not get off to a good start - I had assumed (foolishly) that 1 Kings matches (pretty much) with 1 Chronicles, which it doesn't. 1 Kings begins with Solomon, however, it is 2 Chronicles that begins with Solomon. So, two books I had are on 1 Chronicles - thus, I'll have to take them back and swap them.
I begun with a book on 1 Kings, but its a lot tougher finding stuff, since I don't really know where Solomon fits. I've done about a quarter of one book in one day, with 4 days left. But, hopefully, Solomon won't take too much of Kings, and finding stuff in subsequent books will be easier. Though, admittedly, I'm not 100% sure of what I'm looking for. I'm expecting to see some stuff, but I don't know if I will.

Actually, I didn't start my assignment till about 11:00 - first off, I had account stuff to do, so did a tiny bit while watching Mumman Bhai MBBS (or whatever). Unfortunately, it was a bad choice, cos its a Bollywood film, which requires reading subtitles, and is thus hard to watch while doing accounts stuff. So, I was mainly watching film, thus I stopped at 11. Also, I figured I should be using my more productive mornings to do assignment work.

At around 1, or so, went for my standard rectangle walk to post letters. Although its what most people term a 'nice' day, its one of those irritating spring days to me - in sun is too hot, in shade with wind is too cold. So I wore chinos, but it was uncomfortable by the end. Or, more precisely, the middle.

About 3, or so, drove down to Subi to buy cake for H's birthday. Ended up choosing the small Boston Mudcake, which was considerably more nicer than I usually find that it is - it usually tastes quite artificial.

Did Mandarin lesson 16 in the afternoon - I think I'm gonna have to go back and review some, nay, most of these, because I can make most of the responses, but way too slowly. And I still have large problems with understanding when other people are speaking.

Did most of the rest of accounts stuff between 4:30 and 5:50, while finishing off the Mumna Bhai MBBS film. It was quite good - sort of like Patch Adams but better, and more Indian. It was about a guy who was a mob boss (essentially), who pretends hes a doctor when his parents come to visit. Then, through a mean real doctor, they discover hes been lying. So, he goes to medical school, where the mean real doctor is dean. Whenever he has to take an exam, he threatens one of the other doctors to tell him all the answers. However, he wins the entire hospital over by being affectionate to the patients, which is frowned upon by the establishment. Theres also the token love story aspect. Quite funny, nicely uplifting and not too many songs.

Began watching Mullholland Falls during lunch, but only saw about 10 minutes or so of it. Thus, I don't have much of an opinion yet.

Also, my Murder Most Horrid arrived today. Was gonna watch that at lunch, but someone has taken the VCR downstairs, and its not expected to be returned anytime soon.

The whole night (essentially) was taken up with H's birthday, which ended up involving pizza for dinner as well. I also may have found, not really a solution, but at least a slight appeasement of my Friday problem. Maybe.

Day 30

Homer: "A gun is NOT a weapon, Marge - its a tool. Like a butcher's knife, or a harpoon, or......an alligator."

Was on ushering today, for some reason. Probably a good thing, in the end, since there was, like, nobody else.

Went for lunch at Foo Wah, cos V told me to. I told him about my problem re: stupid IE (see yesterday), and V recommended I use this Mozilla Firefox instead, which I currently am. I've already found two problems, though:
1) the games on Zone.com don't work
2) for some reason, there doesn't seem to be the listening pop-up on Amazon.com (only the Windows Media and Real Player) - but that might be just coincidence that none of the ones I've looked at have the option - but that seems really unlikely.

I ended up winning AEOII for $30.50, so there you go. I paid for that, but had to use direct deposit cos there was no paypal option - so it may take even longer to get here.

I finished watching Thirteen Ghosts in the morning - like virtually all horror films, the ending was stupid, made no sense, and was very not scary. Why did all the ghosts just disappear when released, even though some before had been terrorising people (ie, the guy in the junkyard at the start)? And why did they only show, like, 5 ghosts (if that) out of the thirteen? etc, etc.

I also watched Laws of Attraction just before the Simpsons, which I had seen the ending of before. A very typical romantic comedy - funny in parts, but ultimately quite forgettable. As evidenced by the fact that I'd forgotten I'd seen the ending before.

Went out for dinner to Hippo Creek (the 1kg steak place, though no-one ordered that), I think partly for H's birthday, which is tommorrow. I had a steak and ribs - the steak was OK, the ribs were super. But, unfortunately, it was too much, so I ended up not enjoying it as much as I would have had there been less. As usual, the meal conversation ended on the subject of toilets.

Then went to watch In Her Shoes at Innaloo. Quite a gratifying show, in that most of the laughs were based on character humour, which had been built up rather seriously at the start. My main qualm was that Toni Collette was re-visiting Muriel way too much in the wedding sequence at the end. It was interesting to see Cameron Diaz in a role which was, primarily, quite serious - a similar character to what she played in Vanilla Sky, but with more substance (in the end, at least).

It is getting almost too much for me now to drive past the intersection of Hay Street and Underwood Road, that which leads to Challenge Stadium. For the past 10 months it has filled me with an excitement, which is irritating cos its so far away. Now, its more towards making me sad...

Day 29

Bart: "Hello, operator?
I'd like to order a wake-up call.
Three AM.
For every room except this one."

So, this is the second time I'm writing this, due to IE totally screwing up the first time.

Woke up about 8:30, and went straight out to bring in my washing. Unbelievable, my Simpsons shirt was still wet.
Went to Koorong to buy stuff, and got the new Todd Agnew CD 'Reflection of Something'. My favourite track of what I've heard so far is 'Isaiah 6', which I originally got confused with Isaiah chapter 9. Its based on Isaiah 6:2-8 (approx), almost word for word of some strange bible translation, of the call of Isaiah, about the train of the robe filling the temple, etc. Obviously, has special significance for me, based on the whole 'assignment due last Friday' thing.
On the way, stopped and did shopping and got another 5 movies.

Went to Broadway for lunch. Had char siew chicken rice, which was quite good quantity for the price, though quality was a little lacking - it looked like char siew, but didn't really taste much barbecue.

When I got back home, I watched the first movie - the Neverending Story. I know what you're thinking, and you'd be right. There are some shows, like Jumanji, and even Home Alone had its moments. But this film was, on the whole, irritating and banal. I guess kiddies like it, but I did not. However, I do remember liking the second one better - so, you never know, do you?
I also began watching Thirteen Ghosts later on, recommended by Frae Dizzle. Its had its moments, but it isn't making a whole lot of sense, and its not that scary. There are thirteen ghosts, but only about 6 people in the house, and the only guy to die so far was cut in half by a door, and the ghost was hardly involved.

I finished week 8 by completing lecture 3, so I'm almost back on track in that regard. In terms of reading, though, I'm only up to chapter 15 in Isaiah, and now I should be reading 1 Kings and Chronicles based on the Solomon assignment due Friday.

I purchased three videos from itunes - some Pixar short film called 'For the Birds', which is good to watch once, but after that...; 'A Thousand Miles' by Vanessa Carlton, which has that great piano just driving around the streets, and 'The Dolphins Cry' by Live, which I mainly got cos Ed just looks so freaky happy, while everyone else is running away scared.

I'm still about 16 hours or so away from AOEII, still sitting at about $30.

I finally succumbed to the lure of the Architecht's speech, and thus added Reloaded to buy when I purchase Seinfeld seasons 5 & 6, released on the same day. Actually, I'm still considering season 6, but season 5 has got, as I recall, three of my favourite episodes - where George is a marine biologist, where George does the opposite of what he normally does, and where Jerry's accountant seems to steal his money.
I had a wild idea yesterday to buy a Simpsons season - probably 4, cos, as I recall (again) that has my favourite episode, as well as a lot of other great ones. The main reason was because I was reading in my book that when episodes were put into syndication, they cut bits out. However, the example they gave was that the following scene was cut:
'If I have three Pepsis, and I take one away, how many Pepsis do I have left?'
'Um....Pepsi?'
'Partial credit!'
Which was left in the episode here. So I'm guessing we have unsyndicated syndication. But there do seem to be some episodes which have scenes cut, so.....

Went out for dinner to Sienas in Leederville, after driving for what seemed like hours around Northbridge, which had half its roads blocked off, and then absolutely no parking. Surprised myself by having pasta (actually, I was really hungry, so was thinking about it, but wanted steak anyway). Actually, the main reason I ordered was so, out of 6 people, we had dishes number 51, 52, 53, 54, 55 and 56. Unfortunately, it didn't quite work out, and the 56 was replaced by a 57. And I doubt any of the kitchen people got the joke.

Day 28

Bart: "I want a biscuit"
Marge: "First, finish your sundae"
(Bart forces down bite of sundae)
Bart: "Is that enough?"
Marge: "Two more bites!"

Finished my breakfast around 9:30, and started on my assignment straight away. Did a tiny bit more on the last Isaiah book - probably started writing around 10. Finished conclusively at 2:30, which included walking in a roundabout way to the Gourmet place on Hampden for Terriaki chicken at lunch, and also doing my weekly two loads of washing.
I wasn't really that happy with the final result - it seemed just endless quoting of other peoples work. But, hopefully can get pass at least. Maybe.
Got back around 3:30 - I got lost on the way there - missed a turn. But I handed it in no problems, and got my seven more books for the Solomon assignment due next Friday.

I did Mandarin lesson 15 around 4. The afternoon tiredness was setting in, but I did kinda OK. Up until the last bit, where they do these conversations and I never do well - they just speak way too fast and I have to sit there and convert Mandarin - English then back again and I just never have enough time. *sigh*

Got a few more songs, actually from the Bigpond place cos, well, I donno exactly. Cos I was originally looking for a Tenacious D song and there was no Tenacious D on itunes, and while there I remembered some other songs I wanted, by Tonic, Sister Hazel and two by The Corrs.

And that was the day. Went to corporate prayer, and, yes, my worst fears were confirmed. There may be a way what I can possibly get someone else to go, but it won't be the same - and they probably won't go anyway, cos it is like $40, now.

Day 27

Lisa: "Tell Bart to stop squeaking his chair"
Homer: "Bart, stop squeaking that chair. If you must do anything, click this pen"
(Bart starts clicking pen)
Homer: "That looks like fun"
(takes out pen and starts clicking)
Homer: "Race ya. Lisa, you play winner"
Homer: "That was a great game. First, Bart was winning, but then he said 'this is stupid' and stopped and I won!"

Well, didn't get time to play my sax. The cuplrit? The itunes music store! Yes, was it only two days ago that I mentioned it? Well, today I got the email, and its here. FINALLY.
Unfortunately, they seem to be behind the US store in terms of content - there is no Fatboy Slim 'Weapon of Choice' video, for example. However, I was able to get some Phil Collins tracks that I wanted. Then, I went through the complete U2 catalogue, to see if there was anything important I missed. I was mainly looking for Everlasting Love, and some songs that they did for the movie In the Name of the Father. Well, guess what? The so called 'complete' U2 catalogue didn't have any of those songs! I mean, the In the Name of the Father ones I can sorta understand (but not really), but Everlasting Love? Its not as if its a rarity - its in nearly every Irish-based film I've seen. It was on the Best of 1980-1990 B-Sides, for goodness sake! Very disappointing.
I ended up getting about 13 or so more U2 tracks, but none of them are really super unmissable stuff. The best was probably 'The Ground Beneath Her Feet', which is on the Australian release of All That You Can't Leave Behind, but not the US release, which is what I have.

I finished breakfast around 9:45 or so, and did Mandarin lesson 14. Still, not too many problems. I have to say, I'm not all that comfortable with saying 'I'm giving'. It sounds like 'I'm....something else.

I continued with Isaiah straight after that, around 11, which proved a lot more fruitful than doing it in the afternoon - I obviously work better in morning hours. I finished the rest of the second Isaiah book without writing too much more down - there are really no specific sins mentioned after chapter 5, or so. I would've like to read more on the vision in chapter 6 and the messianic prophecy in chapter 9, etc, but am a bit pressed for time. Still got lots to do tommorrow, but it is by no means the impossible task of last Friday.

Got another phone call (thats almost 2 weeks later) about the job interview from, like, 3 Thursdays ago. Finally managed to make it clear to the guy that I wanted some part time stuff - the equivalent of 3.5 days is what I said. He said he had three positions in mind, and would see if any of them could accommodate what I wanted, starting a week + Monday (cos I still have to do that Solomon assignment). So, there is the possibility that God is just gonna do what He, like, always seems to do - be just so darn nice.

I watched Edward Scissorhands today, the last of the 9. Quite a good film, though sad and unsettling, for most of it, cos you know its not gonna have a happy ending. I'm still finding it hard to connect Johnny Depp with Edward - maybe if I watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory it would help.

The Ghost in the Shell is on today - I haven't seen it for the past two weeks, so hopefully I won't forget. I just love that theme music!

Surprise, surprise, I was outbid on AOEII - it finished at about $47. I bid on another one which is closing in about 2 days, but its already at my maximum of $31, so I probably won't get that, either. Dear me. On a whim, I had a look for MKII, but they only seem to have MKIV, which I've never even heard of. Its not that expensive, but I think it would be silly to buy it. I probably wouldn't enjoy MKII that much anymore, anyway. I daresay it would be too dated now.

So the main thing that took up my time today was cos I checked the wrong option in itunes, and it reconfigured my filing system for all my songs, so I spent a long time removing all my files again. Its also quite irritating that the songs are in the AAC format, which, I don't think, is recognised by Windows Media Player - I'm thinking, thus, of playing all my music through itunes instead. But still thinking about that at the moment.

Really looking forward....or should I say really nervous about corporate prayer tommorrow. Not for it, itself, but cos I've had a worrying thought since Sunday which needs clarification. However, I don't think the answer can possibly be positive, so I've been putting it off. But, tommorrow will be the opportunity, and that will be that. It may be an exaggeration that my life hangs in the balance based on this....but only slightly. I just hope I won't cry if the answer is not favourable. Well, not too much.

Day 26

Ranger: "That sounds like a great show. What channel is that on?"
Bart: "Why, NBC, of course!"
Lisa: "NBC has lots of great shows, and their sports coverage can't be beat."
Homer: "I wonder whats on NBC right now?"

I should note about the above episode, which was on last night - following the above quote is the ending credits, and while they're running Homer reads some disclaimer about 'NBC bad, Fox good'; but channel 10, with its obsession of running previews for other shows at the end of shows, drowned it out with meaningless babble about shows I didn't want to watch, but had already seen countless other previews for. Not happy, Jan!

Finished breakfast about 10, after downloading another 4 songs. I thus had enough for a CD, and added them all to my ipod. I felt like Amon Goeth from Schindler's List - "ya, I've got another 18 coming in and a I have to make room", ruthlessly cutting songs to 3 stars.

I completed Mandarin lesson 13 - again, without too many problems. I remember learning something that would be quite useful, but now I've forgotten what it is. Too bad.
I had a go at trying to learn some actual characters yesterday, but they look so cruddy written with a pen compared to the strokes in the book - its very discouraging.

I finally got Murder Most Horrid for about $23, and paid for it like straight away. AOEII is still about a day away, currently at about $42, with a $3 buffer. I'm not that hopeful, really, but it would be nice. I keep checking everyday just in case the amazon stuff is here, when, in reality, it will still be another week or so, I think. It seems like forever since I worked, but it will only be 4 weeks on Friday - its like an extended holiday only.

I did a tiny bit more on Isaiah, but I always feel so tired in the afternoons - so I just ended up resting when I should've been reading etc. It means that, again, its due in two days, and I haven't really done that much since last Friday. Hmm....

I also think that tommorrow I should be well enough to start the sax again - and, even if not, I should anyway, cos its been almost two weeks already.

I watched The Emperor's New Groove today, and, despite the title, its a wonderfully funny film, and would probably be close to my favourite Disney film ever. This would almost certainly be David Spade's best work outside of Just Shoot Me (and maybe even in) - it also stars Nina Van Horn from the same show as the peasant's wife (don't ask me the actresses name), John Goodman (from countless shows) as the peasant, and, although I didn't pick the voice - it was really familiar, but I couldn't place it - the "High five!" guy from Seinfeld - Putty. Or Puddy. Or whatever his name was. David Spade really was the star - it worked especially well as a llama. He was at his irritatingly arrogant best. I read some thing about Sting pulling out all but one of his songs, and, I guess, Tom Jones is the one who took his place.

I also watched Shark Tale at night - another one of those 'placing animals in a human world so its funny' movies. I mainly enjoyed the mafia side to it - especially with Robert de Niro and Michael Imperioli (Christopher, from the Sopranos), who played their parts to perfection - oh, and the octopus, of course, who, I think, was Pussy from the Sopranos, although I don't think I placed his voice at the time, mainly cos he didn't have enough mobster type lines.
The ending was a bit stupid - Oscar makes this one silly little speech, and suddenly the big tough mafia shark becomes all mushy just like that. Plus, a lot of the animation was really ugly - using, like, the actors real faces on the fish was just wrong.

House was on today - but it was a repeat! Unbelievable! I was so disgusted, I went upstairs to finish watching Shark Tale, and did church accounts. Cos now we're 'back' (although its a first for me) to 4 paid staff, and I had to make up the flack for October.

I think I'm up to about chapter 10 or so in Numbers, but its on hiatus while I skip ahead to read the 8th century prophets. I've done Amos, Hosea and Micah, but have only read chapter 1 of Isaiah (thats 65 left). And you can cross off Judges too, cos I read that at the start. So, between me and the lectures, is just 3/4 of Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings. Thats about - 180 chapters, give or take. Right...

Day 25

Lenny: "Quiet everyone. He's about to do something stupid"
Homer: "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you must have me confused with a fictional television character. Now, if you'll excuse me, my fondue is ready."
(swivels round and knocks fondue onto control station)
(everyone laughs)
Lenny: "There goes Albany!"
Karl: "Uh oh, spaghetti o!"

Woke up at about 8:30 to blissful silence. After breakfast, downloaded some music what I had purchased yesterday. Then, did Mandarin lesson 12. Got through it quite well.

Went through lecture 2 of unit 8 - which finished off Kings and started Isaiah. It wasn't a particularly long one, though, cos there was like a student opinion of teachers thing in the middle which was not recorded.

At about 12:30, went for a walk to post my letters. I did a pretty big rectangle, encompassing the entire length of Hampden road, and the width between said road and Winthrop avenue. It was pretty much just the right length - my legs were getting that painful tired feeling towards the end.

Then, I had lunch and did my ironing (in prep for Sunday) while watching the rest of Secret Window. The twist at the end wasn't so much predictable; it's just been done too many times before - see Fight Club, Sixth Sense, et al. At least the bad guy won - who was like the 'hero' anyway. Anti-hero, I guess. So it was a good film, in the end. Kinda surprisingly.

I read a tiny bit more of my Simpsons book. The author guy is getting old quick - he just can't stop using words like excellent, perfect, exact, best, never done before, greatest in history, etc. Which is, like, too way over the top.
One interesting thing - I was thinking in the morning about a conversation with the Bennifactor on Sunday about how he didn't like his name and I didn't like my name. So I was thinking that neither Joseph nor Joe had special appeal to me, but I thought Joey sounds alright. Then I vaguely recalled how past cell leader Dewy used to say Joe-Joe (I think to annoy me, which it did), so how could I help but progress to the Simpson quote of Barney yelling out 'Joey Joe-Joe'. I couldn't remember the actual joke, though. So, yes, it was mentioned in the few pages I read today. When Homer is talking about a problem this 'friend' of his has. 'Yeah' says Moe, 'so whats his name?' 'Um....Joey.......Joe.......Joe........Samatar........Hasibalabab' (or something equally ridiculous) 'Thats the stupidest name I've ever heard' says Moe. Then some guy at the bar gets up and rushes out crying and Barney calls out 'Joey Joe-Joe!'

I finished Isaiah from one book and started Isaiah from another book. Unfortunately, as I feared, being 66 chapters in length, there is no simple few page summary of the sins that Isaiah pointed out. Also, I'm faced with the problem of if I'm supposed to be dealing just with first Isaiah (1-39) which is definitively attributed to the 8th century, or if I'm supposed to talk about the whole of Isaiah, even though most scholars have pretty much accepted as fact that 40-66 were written 150 years later by some other guy.

I downloaded another few songs in the afternoon - mainly from Newsboys and Craig David. I then had enough 4 star WMAs to convert them to MP3s, but, for some reason, Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand, and World Turning by Yothu Yindi refuse to allow themselves to be burnt to a CD. Which is irritating. So I'm still about 4 or 5 songs short, so I'm gonna wait until I can find some more. Which shouldn't take long - I found some which I had before but I don't have now.

And while I'm on the subject - discovered yesterday a new reason to pine for the itunes music store - they have videos (inc TV shows like Lost - the only ones I saw were bad shows, and I doubt they're cheap). The one that caught my attention was ranked number two - the divine 'Weapon of Choice' by Fatboy Slim, starring Christopher Walken dancing around a hotel. I remember General Harmanto sending it to me some 4+ years ago (just after it came out), and it was so darn good. The songs not half bad, neither. But I wouldn't want it without the clip. They had quite a few U2 ones as well, Fix You by Coldplay, etc. But, what can you do? Except move to the US of A, or western Europe.

Day 24

Homer: "C'mon"
Lenny: "Naah"
Homer: "C'mon!"
Lenny: "Naah"
Homer: "Oh, c'mon!"
Lenny: "ohhh"
Homer: "Yes!"

Woke up at about 7:15. Went back to sleep and got woken up by Hillsongs again (well, United Live, to be precise) at about 9:15. Received a call almost straight away from Ps Yoy re: the money he didn't get yesterday. After my shower and moving my car, managed to get it to him through a chain of events that ended around 10:45.

After breakfast, proceeded to watch Man on Fire while doing church accounts. It was quite a good film - lots of violence, which helped the predictable thriller plot - ie, that close family members were involved. The ending sequence seemed to suggest it was a true story, which I find very hard to believe - and the cover says nothing about it being, so I'm guessing it wasn't. And it seems strange if his motive was to kill all the people involved, why it was he killed all the mules and puppets, and left the main players untouched. Still, I'm not a huge fan of Denzel Washington, and he didn't annoy me half as much in this film. Reminded me in a few scenes of Morgan Freeman, which was nice.

I then went through lesson 11 of Mandarin. I've decided that Mandarin is a far more difficult language than English if you have a condition what effects you're voice - cos I found it really hard to understand myself distinguishing the four tones.
I've also decided to ignore the Bennifactor's advice re: Mandarin words - since the verb 'to go' is definitely pronounced 'tchu' with a falling tone, and is, probably, spelled 'qu' in pinyin, as far as I can tell with the dodgy English-Chinese dictionary thing I have.

I then continued with my assignment, onto a new book writing out some more stuff re: Micah. There wasn't really anything new, though, so I was essentially thus making sure my bible references were as specific as possible. I got about half way through, then suddenly felt really tired, so had a bit of lay down. Then, I made tea and continued.

After that, I couldn't resist any longer, so went on ebay and made a bid for AOEII. It included the exspansion pack, so I bid to make the total $45. Its currently around $43, with still 2 days left. I saw one that was selling for $21 - but then it had postage of like $15. Like V says - the postage is where they get ya. My Murder Most Horrid was outbid, and so I found another one which is currently at about 8 pounds - but I think thats still got a few days left. I've had a few more attempts at getting the Lisa figurine from the Coles series at below $5, with absolutely no success.

I got a brochure promoting PlanetShakers 2006 on Thursday - already registered though. But on the back is like this nice poster promoting the thing. So I put it on my door - under the irritating picture of Logan the cat. But Frae Dizzle insists it stay there, so what are you gonna do? Or, so he says....
I also took a photo of it (since, for some reason, this computer now refuses to recognise my scanner), and used it as my picture for MSN Messenger. It cuts off the edges, and its really too small, but, again - thats just the way it goes.

Started watching Secret Window. Like all thrillers, I have pretty much no idea about whats going on. I thought it was supposed to be supernatural, like, but theres nothing very supernatural happening so far. Just this weird guy being an idiot. Hopefully it will get better, but I'm still not expecting all that much.

In memory of Jeffrey, ate luncheon meat for dinner.
*sigh*

Day 23

Dr Hibbert: "Broccolli - when will people learn?"
Marge: "But I thought broccolli was..."
Dr Hibbert: "Yes; one of the world's most deadly vegetables. It trys to warn you with its terrible taste."

Warm today, so, typically, I'm on ushering. Couldn't wear my lovely, comfortable fitting cool shirts, cos they have short sleeves which don't go well with ties - after today, I think I'll just not care. My only normal shirt which fit well was not ironed (from two weeks ago, or so), so I had to wear this white thing, which was way too small. Oh, well.

Went for lunch at Yuki (colloquially known as 'Yucki'). Wasn't going to mention it, but V said I should put it in. Exactly what I should put in, he didn't say, so....I ordered actual sushi (though the chicken katsu kind, not evil fish kind), which is the first time I've had it in a long time. It wasn't quite enough, and it wasn't exactly cheap, but it did taste pretty darn good. I had a very tiring conversation with the Bennifactor, content of which now escapes me. I remember on two seperate occasions he tried to contribute to a conversation I was having with V re: variety at Japanese restaurants in Perth, and both times he had no idea what the discussion was about, and proceeded to, like, make me more tired. He continued on the journey home, by making equally tiring comments re: the music on my ipod.
I guess I should mention the whole bible incident, even though I wasn't really a directly involved party - but it was unusual, so...
I got a lift over to the Yuki place with V, since his car was parked a few metres closer to FCC than mine. The car in front of us was some small, dark blue thing (an Echo, so the Bennifactor said later). Suddenly, in the middle of Collins Road, this bible just blew off the car (it must've been on the roof) and landed on on of those false islands (made of just white lines) in the middle of the road. The car's driver obviously didn't notice, so V parked as fast as possible (it was right next to the food parking place) and ran back and got it. By then, though, the car had been parked and the owner (nobody seemed to know who they were) had vanished. V had the great idea of just putting the bible back on the roof, but changed his mind (I guess, cos, they'd just do the same thing again). In Yuki, I was skimming through it looking to straighten all those bent pages (and checking it out, cos it was better than mine), when I came accross a card with a name. V recognised the name as some guy he'd been talking to like 5 minutes previous, who was having lunch in Taurus. So he just went next door, and that was that, then.

I finished watching Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat - Annhilation. Although the first wasn't great, the second was worse. The main problem, from my perspective, is that the first movie is mainly based on MKI, and the second is mainly based on MKIII, and the problem with MKIII is that there's, like, too many characters, which was similar in this case. Plus, why did Shao Kahn keep taking off his mask and looking like a normal idiot? And why is Kung Lao only mentioned by name and never actually seen? And why don't they utilise that deep voice guy more - he is mainly used in the trailer, when he reads most of the names over the music. The second one just abandoned the whole concept of a tournament altogther, which really didn't work well. I thought the best bits of the first movie (and thus the both) were where they tried to replicate the scenes in the game by setting fights on the beach, or surrounded by people, or in the trees, or something. I didn't see much from the game in the second film.

I watched about 5 seconds of Man on Fire while doing about 5 seconds of accounts stuff. I was then, well, forced into going to Church Together at the Supreme Court gardens. Surprisingly, they actually did have a proper worship and word section, and, more surprisingly re: worship, I could actually really enjoy it. I normally get really put off when I'm surrounded by space (which there was a lot of) and people that are just like doing their own thing (which there was also a lot of). But the majority of songs they sang were ones I really like, so, it didn't really matter in the end. I got another idea while singing 'Let Creation Sing' by Hillsong (song 1 from God He Reigns - my equal favourite song off that CD, along with 'Let Us Adore', song 1 from disc 2) - but its probably just another of those things that won't really work out. Cos I really don't know how to express the idea properly, and the words circulating in my head from then to now don't really do what I want them to.
If nothing else, its a lovely picture seeing those buildings framed by trees - and even lovelier seeing the buildings dwarfed by the great grey dome of sky above them. I am a speck. But there is Somebody watching over this speck. And, there is that odd time when I know just how pleased He is...

Day 22

(scantily clad women come out at a service station and start washing a nerd's car)
Voiceover: "The catholic church. We've made some......changes."
Lisa: "These Superbowl ads are weird."

Feeling quite a bit better today - the cough is still there, but only occasionally, and the nose is beginning to be able to smell again.

Did the usual shopping expedition, but Frae Dizzle is no longer cooking, so got to avoid the evil Subi Market Fruit & Veg place. After that, went and got another 9 movies.

Watched Ocean's Twelve first off - which was OK, up till the ending, which was just stupid, and made nearly the entire rest of the film obsolete and pointless. So.... Unfortunately, they recruited another member, so they'll probably try for an Ocean's Thirteen in the near future - sigh. But the bit where Julia Robert's pretended to be herself was funny.

Did lecture 1 of week 8 after that - up to Kings now, and finished it all off in one lecture. Not really particularly interesting, save that they began to mention prophecies which is kinda my forte, after this assignment thingy. Or, should I say, during this assignment thingy.

Then, did some sorting out of account stuff - mainly writing cheques and preparing support - while watching about half or so of Troy. I finished the rest of the account stuff and the rest of Troy after dinner. I thought it was quite an enjoyable film, but it just lacked the granduer of, say, Gladiator or Lord of the Rings, but, incidentally, it did a considerably better job than Alexander and Kingdom of Heaven. There was really only one decent fight scene - between Hector and Achilles. The rest was too brushed over, and the soundtrack lacked conviction. And there was too much pausing, and too many stereotyped characters - etc, etc.

After watching the Simpsons, started watching Mortal Kombat - though why I want to see this film again is beyond me. It does make me want to play the game again - not MKI, that was bad, but I was a big fan of MKII, esp Rayden and Kung Lao. Though most characters were pretty fun. And the music was great.

Which reminds me - reading all this historical stuff surrounding the prophets - ie re: Assyria, Damascus, Babylon, Egypt, Hittites, etc. - really makes me want to play Age of Empires, and Age of Empires II even more. I'd always wanted Israel to be included as one of the powers in that game - even though they probably never were, really. At times, I really regret this commitment to no piracy stuff.

The other point, of course, if I had that game, I would doubtless be hard-pressed to do much else. I guess. Still......

Day 21

Homer: "This is a picture of your enemy. Everyday, you will spend half an hour staring at this picture and hating it."
(sticks a picture of Todd on the wall)
Bart: "How will this help me be a better golfer?"
Homer: "It just will. Now; start hating!"
Bart: "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...." (fades off)
(Todd appears at window in exact pose as picture on the wall)
Todd: "Hi Bart!"

As if I needed further proof that God is up there in heaven, having a nice giggle at my life down here.....
After sleeping quite early last night due to my headache - it was rather sporadic, I think orginally around 9 then waking and sleeping - I woke at 11:30 and turned everything off and went to bed proper, even catching up with my QT from last night. I woke definitively at 9:30, by virtue of Frae Dizzle's mobile phone, and then his pounding on the door for no reason, save to just be Frae.
So after the shower and starting my washing (typical - it was gonna rain today), I added milk to a mix of Cheerios and Rice Bubbles for my cereal. After that, I discovered that the milk was about 3 days out of date, and hence had to throw it all away. I just drank more Chrysanthemum for breakfast - cold, which I really don't like, so I nuked some for accompanying me upstairs for the final few hours before my assignment is due.
By nightime yesterday, I had probably done enough on both Amos and Hosea, using 3 and a half books. I thus did notes on Micah from two books already used, then moved onto a new book to do more Micah, and perhaps a little more on Hosea, since I was having difficulty finding definitive links between Amos and Hosea, unlike between Amos and Micah and Isaiah, which were united at least in their condeming of oppression of the poor.
By now it was about 12:30 - I had re-written my introduction completely, and completed my bibliography - ensuring I had got all the terribly complicated rules right. But this was 100 words (the bibliography not counted, of cos). So, I thought, only 1400 more to go before about 3 - to give myself time to hand in and get my Solomon books from the college. I thought I'd check the unit plan to see if it was 1500 minimum or 2000. And I found the calender, so, for no real reason, I checked to make sure I got the date right for the start of week 9. After not believing my eyes and staring at it for 30 seconds or so, I discovered that there is an extra weeks holiday between week 7 and week 8, thus, week 9 begins 31 Oct, which means I have an extra week. I proceeded to go into Frae's room and yell loudly, which was particularly effective, since he was trying to rest at the time. I thus moved downstairs and watched Mrs Culdicot's Cabbage War.

It was quite a good film - at least, up until about the time when they moved into the hotel. After that, got very preachy and ended shallowly. Also, based on the trailer, the entire film seemed to be about the old people misbehaving at the old folk's home, and, really, this was only about 15 minutes or so. The introduction was very long - it was good, but took up about half the film.

I thought, then, I should go on with the Mandarin, which I did - I redid lesson 10, and thought that I managed to get through most of it quite well. Lesson 11 still might be a bit of a struggle, but we'll see, I guess.
I didn't do any more sax, cos I don't think I'd do too well, what with my irritated throat condition.

Before the Simpsons, and after, I watched "Shall we dance?" while doing some church account stuff. It was not a good film - touted as a romatic comedy, it did contain some lafs, I guess, but there wasn't much romanticsm - lust verging on adultery (though only hinted at) for most of it, then some sort of desperate attempt to bring his wife back into it - it was incredibly shallow. And there was no good wrapping up at the end. Tried to throw off the cliched happy, sappy ending perhaps, by just not having an ending at all. I guess.

Watched I Spy, since it was on TV. I should've just watched Shanghai Noon again, I think. I quite enjoyed the film, but only because of the special agent stuff, which was quite entertaining. The plot wasn't great, the double agents were too predictable, and it just wasn't very funny. Eddie Murphy was, thus, a complete waste of time.

Day 20

Mr Burns: "Bones: shattered. Organs: leaking vital fluids. Slight headache. Loss of appetite. Smithers; I'm going to die."

The photos down the side are the ones I took when at my parents house for the last few days. I don't really know much details about them. The second one down is a sun orchid. After that is the flower of the Holly-leafed banksia.
There's also the chickens that were named as the purpose of the visit. The rooster is Julius (as in Caesar) and thus the two hens are Cleopatra (who has a band on her leg) and Messolina (the manipulative mother of Claudius Caesar, who was after Julius). The bottom one is the giant spider orchid (as far as we can tell) - its relatively rare.
Woke up about 8, but didn't have my shower till about 8:30, or so. In the meantime, I was loading on the other 8 CDs for Mandarin I. Moved the car at 9:30, cos it was parked on the road again.
I was then ordered by F (now Frae Dizzle) to eat the leftovers from last night's dessert. I did that while watching New Fists of Fury, starring Jackie Chan, supposedly a sequel to Fists of Fury AKA The Chinese Connection (not the Big Boss/Ice Factory one).
Frae had informed me it was terrible, and it wasn't. Frankly, I enjoyed it considerably more than the previous two Bruce Lee films I'd seen, as well as the Jackie Chan's Half a Loaf of Kung Fu - simply because, there was a lot more fighting. And the scenes were fairly well done - although, there were a number of instances were you could see the board breaking before they kicked it, or people falling over without cause.
Frae then offered to make some Chrys- anthemum (with Ginseng) - however, unbeknowest to me, it was an entire large pot full, and I have to drink it all. So - great.

My entire afternoon was spent, not entirely fruitfully, attempting to complete my Amos assignment thing - which I shall have to personally hand in tommorrow afternoon sometime.
Unfortunately, my cold has progressed into a rather chronic cough, and an equally severe headache - more like head pain. Thus, I have been unable to concentrate well - however, I do forsee that I may be able to get it done. Which is great.

Went with JC to look at the most likely candidate for residence next year. And it does seem certainly nice and big, and only slightly more than this place.
Plus, a lot of the furniture that we would've needed to buy is being sold there fairly cheaply. So the only issue now is really a question of timing - mainly from JC's POV, since he needs to offload his current place before he takes the new one.

Day 19

Principal Skinner: "We got you this time Bart. There's no such thing as Scotchtoberfest!"
Willie: "There's not? You used me Skinner! You used me!"

They say you learn something new everyday. Well, I dunno about that, but there has been an incident where I kinda learned something, cos I probably already knew it, but it was as good as being forgotten.
So I bought Mandarin II for US$270, cos I was nearing the end of Mandarin I? Up to lesson 10 out of 16? Um, no. Try 10 out of 30.
See, the lessons are on 16 CDs, with 1 containing general background information on China and its culture, etc. But, see, the case is in two 'pages' with 8 CDs per 'page'. And, when orignally loading the CDs onto the computer as MP3s, I, in my finite wisdom, must've decided that the first 16 lessons is enough, for now, and I'll load on the other 14 later. Life, being that it is, that was about a year ago (probably), so I forgot. It was only when I pulled out the incredibly dusty set to take to my parents house (in case I got the opportunity to learn some more - I didn't) that I discovered the extra 8 CDs. So. There you go, then.

Watched Schindler's List again, after V had it for like, a year or so. Now my parents have it, so maybe it will be another year. Ah.... beautifully glorious incredible film. I think this is the first time I've seen it after realising (and confirming) that Isaac Schtern is Ben Kingsley - the guy who apparently played Ghandi, and was also in The House of Sand and Fog, etc. Its strange, cos he looks so old and thin and he's got hair.
And the two main actors - Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes are so incredibly believable. One of my favourite lines in the film - cos it represents the insignificance to the SS of the Jews was Amon Goeth's first line of dialogue:
Amon is being chaffuered through the Jewish Ghetto in Krakow. His subordinate is describing the situation. "This street divides the ghetto pretty much in half. On the right, ghetto A. Skilled craftsmen, and the like. On the left, ghetto B. Surplus labour. The elderly and infirmed mostly. Which is where you will want to start, I think (ie start sending the weak to be gassed). Well, do you have any questions, sir?" And Goeth says "Yeah, why is the top down, I'm **** freezing."

The other films I saw over the few days:
Spiderman 2. Just as bad as Spiderman 1. I don't see how people are calling this the ultimate comic book movie.
Collateral. Thoroughly enjoyable. So glad I finally managed to watch it - being wanting to for half a year, or so. I didn't like the ending - I wanted Tom Cruise to win. But, I guess you can't expect more from Hollywood. But just how did Jamie Foxx get from talking to her down on the street on his cellphone up to her room in the time it took for Tom Cruise to climb one flight of stairs? And how is Jamie Foxx such a good shot against a professional hitman who can kill 8 other professional bodyguards without breaking a sweat? Nevermind.
Fist of Fury, AKA The Big Boss, starring Bruce Lee. There really wasn't that much fighting, and the story was slow, slow, slow. Enjoyed it slightly more than Enter the Dragon AKA Game of Death, but still much prefer The Chinese Connection AKA Fist of Fury. Confusing, these titles....
The Manchurian Candidate. Meryl Streep, I must say, was superb, although she reminded me too much of Hillary Clinton. Jon Voight's role was too small. Denzel Washington's role was too typical of what he always seems to do, and thus boring on the whole. And that Liev guy - it was too obvious he was a bad guy - since he always seems to be. And he just looks like it. Another film that reminded me of Vanilla Sky - cos of that 'what is dreaming, what is not', and the doctor who was like the tech support guy. Yep.
The Stepford Wives. Yes, it was weird, but a very enjoyable weird show. I think Glen Close and Christopher Walken are what made the film for me - though Bette Midler's part was also very fun. Nicole Kidman had to carry the film, yes, but she seemed to uptight - too much like she was in a 'The Others' type thriller. I guess that was the point, in a way, but it didn't really work for me. It was strange to see a film like this where the big secret is revealed almost straight away.

I've now written three pages of notes for my assignment (handing in Friday), but that covers only about 2 & a half books (out of 7) , and I've really only done very briefly on Hosea, and haven't yet started to cover either Micah or Isaiah. I fear I'm gonna have way too much material. Though the vast majority is probably duplicated already.

Finished the chapter in Confessions on the Book of Memory. Only a few more chapters to go, now. Its really all just reflections and stuff, now. Disappointing, really.

Me got cold, now. I was pretty much fine on Sunday morning, then, as I drove down to my parents house I got a very bad sore throat, and it progressed from there. I now have no capacity for smell, or, hence, taste.
As Dr Nick Riveria would say - "Did you got to Hollywood Upstairs Medical School too?"
"The thigh bones connected to the, other bone. The other bones connected to the, red thing. The red things connected to my, wrist watch. Uh oh."
"The coroner - I'm so sick of that guy."

Day 15

Karl: "So, aren't you guys gonna ask me about my hat?"
Homer: "Hey!"
Lenny: "Mmm, so Karl, whats with the hat?"
Karl: "What, this thing? I got it down at the Isis exhibit at the musuem. Its what the ancient Egyptians call a 'souvenier'."

Woke up at 10 - actually, was woken up by the recruitment guy ringing to ask about the interview from Thursday. I said that I might consider some sort of contract arrangement, starting Monday week.

Went shopping - just for vegies. Also, took back the movies and got another 9.

Watched Starsky & Hutch in the afternoon. Quite good. Not as good as Zoolander, but not a whole lot worse.

Went with my parents to an art exhibition with my parents at 2. They thought it was at the Art Gallery in the city - it wasn't, so we looked at some collection of pottery stuff. It was actually at the museum, which is right near by.
It was an exhibition of award winning wildlife photography (from various people) encompassing Australia, New Zealand, Antartica and New Guinea (although nothing from Antartica got through to this final collection). Some of it was very good. I disagreed with the choice of winner, in a lot of occasions, though (there were a lot of different categories). However, the overall winner was quite superb.

We then saw another exhibition of turn of the century Australian photography. It was impressive that he could get shots so clear from so long ago and with bad materials - but a lot of the subjects were sparse and uninteresting - from the Northern Territory.

We then had a brief look at a chancely found exhibit of Dampier Archipeligo marine 'life'. Saw a Tiger Cowrie and a Crawling Cowrie, both of which I have example shells of. Yay!

We then went to Luna in Leederville and saw a recent Australian film written by a song writer who my mum really likes ie Nick Cave, namely The Proposition. I'm not a fan of Australian films, and this was another very typical example of one - though considerably more violent, probably. It was thus quite passable.

And that was the day. 8:30 service tommorrow, and I'm contemplating heading down to my parent's house Sunday afternoon. So maybe no more posts for a while.

Day 14

Homer: "Sorry, now I only eat food in bar form. For when you put food into a bar, you unleash its awesome power, or so I 'm told. That's why I'm squeezing this 5 pounds of spaghetti into one bite-sized bar."
(eats spaghetti bar. Walks over to phone)
Homer: "Hospital, please."

Another irritatingly uproductive day - mainly due that after lunchtime, my time was just watching movies (cos they're due back tommorrow), shopping (which may mean that tommorrow I have a bit more time) and getting a replacement contact lense. Then the seminar again at night. Which, again, didn't really speak to me. I actually got quite confused with what his catchphrases meant, at times.

Got up quite late again - finished breakfast around 10, or so. Got my washing done. Read a few more pages in Confessions - this memory chapter really does stretch on forever.

I'm also progressing very slowly in Numbers. I'm reading the bible from the start (in The Message transaltion) - I started doing it again, mainly as 'study' for my bible course. Unfortunatley, I'm so far behind now - the lectures are up to Samuel, as I said before. To my credit, I started with Judges (for why? I think because in the past I've often stopped around Joshua), then went back to Genesis. I don't think its going slow now because the material is boring, per se - just that I'm really tired by the time I get around to it. ie, tonight - I'm tired as I write this, so I'm not gonna be able to read much.

Started looking at another text book for my assignment, one that combines Ezekial, Amos and Hosea, among others. I borrowed quite a few books like this, hoping they'd give me common ground between the eight century prophets (unfortunately, there were no books exclusively on that), but no luck yet. I really only skimmed through a few pages before lunch.

I was going through Mandarin lesson 11, but I thought I could multitask by filing accounting papers and checking my emails at the same time. It so didn't work. Got about half way through, then they introudced a few thousand new phrases at once, so I had no idea what was going on. So I just stopped it, thinking I'd do it again later today. Didn't happen.

I ordered my stuff from Amazon, inc Mandarin II and a few CDs and a Tolkein book and a thing I can't mention. Was about US$275, plus postage. Probably work out to Au$375 or so.

Finally finished Enter the Dragon. Definitely seen it before. Not much more comment to add. Another 3 star film.
And the last show was Batman Returns. While, prima facie, its probably still my favourite of the series, while, when I watched number 1, it was better than I remembered, number 2 wasn't as good. So... I donno, anymore.

Made up my mind that I won't take the job from yesterday's interview. I actually had a very scary thought flash through my mind at the end of the seminar today - I don't know if its something I want to think about, because it speaks of a future that is quite uncertain, or, more to the point, insecure.
At present, I have no reason to feel uneasy or desperate in terms of finding work. But I am still having large doubts that God will come through and provide what I want. Not, really, because I don't believe that He will follow-up on what He has promised, but because I'm quite unsure if it was a promise in the first place, and if it really is His plan at all. I think I can echo the words of Pippin (paraphrased) from the Lord of the Ring - The Return of the King (at least the film; not sure about the book:
"I hate not knowing God's will and being outside of it. But being inside it and still having no idea what it is is even worse."
To the point: I was day-dreaming today (during the seminar) about what I would title a sermon on Amos were I to give one:
Thus saith the LORD: I am God - be afraid; be very afraid.

Day 13

Lisa: "They call her the cat woman. Some say shes crazy. But can someone who loves animals that much really be crazy?"
(Cat woman comes out of her house, starts throwing cats at Lisa)
Lisa: "The old Union Pacific doesn't come by here much anymore...."
(Union Pacific rumbles past. Cat woman appears from behind the train, continues throwing cats at Lisa)

About half way through my 'Book of Memory' chapter in Confessions. I think I can sort of see that he's making a point. Maybe.

Tried a new cereal today - Cheerios. Wasn't as a bad as I thought it would be (it looks really boring). I already threw away my Just Grains packet, so can't compare it re: healthiness. But it doesn't taste as good, though it is a change, so....

Completed lesson 10 in Mandarin. It occurred to me that theres only, like, 6 days of lessons left, then its over, so I went to Amazon and added Mandarin II to my cart - thus increasing my future bill from US$75 to US$300. I've decided that I'm almost certainly going to need to review some of these lessons, anyway, because while I am seeming to absorb most of it (the odd phrase comes out almost automatically), I'm still having big problems, mainly in understanding at the pace at which they are speaking. By the time I've managed to figure it all out, its like the end of the conversation already.

Did a bit more of my assignment - basically finished my summary of Amos. I decided that maybe I had a distorted view, so I actually read the book itself. Nope - it really is that scary; maybe more so. I doubt that reading it in The Message transalation helped, but the language used is really quite strong and harsh, and at times mocking and sarcastic. Amos, or, God - ticked off.

Had my usual lunch of toasted sandwiches with cheese 'n' chicken and salami (seperately, of course) while watching more of Enter the Dragon. Eventually, I will finish it. I have definitely seen it before, but don't really remember how it ends. The time to fight scenes ratio is just too big - its not an impressive film. More like James Bond meets Mortal Kombat than a kung-fu film.

Went for prayer near Reid Library at 1:30 for 13:30. Yes. Suprisingly shorter than I expected. Spent the next half an hour or so just sitting around, spouting meaningless mandarin phrases and throwing grass at people.

Then, went straight for an interview for a job that I know I don't want. I haven't yet decided conclusively that I don't want it, but, barring a large and obvious sign, I will not accept. I believe that I made a committment to God that I would not rush, and I would wait for Him, unlike last time. I see nothing in this position that would really do a great deal to help bring me further along in His plan. I'll try and give it at least till Monday, though.

Since the interview started at 3 and went till 6, I didn't get to practice my sax today. Oh well, as Faithless says - "everything will be alright tommorrow". Heh.

My night was taken up by a conference at FCC by Ps Rutherford, an American in Indonesia, or somesort. It was a good, interesting, funny (at times) message. He seemed the sort of person suited to large groups - it probably would've been considerably more impactful with a large lively audience. Although I got the gist, I couldn't really grasp the spirit of what was said. Or, something.

Day 12

Mr Burns: "Well, if its a crime to love ones country, then I'm guilty. And if its a crime to steal a trillion dollars and use it to fund an enemy communist regime, then I'm guilty of that, too. And if its a crime to bribe a jury, so God help me, I'll soon be guilty of that!"
Homer: "God bless America!"

Went and saw Must Love Dogs last night. Better than I thought it would be - quite a few good lafs. Made me want a dog - or, at least, pine for my poor little mice.

Woke up quite early (8), but didn't really feel that tired. I got to sleep rather latish last night, after 11:30, because I drank tea just before bed. I was thus thinking about the wonders of Deuteronomy...it was getting me very worked up.

Read some more of my Simpsons book - its great and very addictive - sort following the lines to my For God, Country and Coca-Cola book, but about a subject I am much more obsessed with.
I'm finding some of the language used a bit irritating - that the Simpsons is the most important cultral phenomemon since the Beatles, etc. One of the most noticable is that 'the creators were given absolute creative control' which I am hearing way too often, and thus I am very cynical about giving much credo to. Ironically (maybe - thankyou, Alanis. Bah!), though, in both instances I have heard it emphasised, I am inclined to believe it. Seinfeld, because I see the interviews with the network executives, and ten + years later, they are still sweating over some of the stuff that got put on TV, and the Simpsons, because of their continual slandering of Fox.

Did Mandarin lesson 9. What can I say - I have no idea. Seriously. I'm hoping I'm absorbing this stuff subconciously, because I can't really make sense of anything I'm hearing. It all sounds the same - I keep hearing my name: the word for 'beer' seems to be insulting me. Then theres 'yeah' and 'yeow' and being 'gun shy itchy' or something.

Finally decided I couldn't put it off any longer, so drove out to Harvest West to get my books for Amos and the other three 8th century prophets (Isaiah, Hosea and Micah, if I read correctly - certainly hope I did). Man, was I disillusioned! I had like UWA in my head - OK, much smaller, sure, but with like a few buildings, and a bit of parkland, and stuff. What is it, really? A single building, in the middle of a low-level industrial zone - surrounded by, like, Midland Bric, smash repairers and tubing sellers and the like. The library was tiny, but had more than enough of the sort of books I wanted - I tried to take the thinnest ones so I wouldn't have to read so much.
Being an external, I didn't have a student card, so I had to like sign up for one while I was there. The admin guy just like wrote the details of the books on some paper, and said it would be quicker next time.

I tried to start my assignment, and actually did manage to get some notes down (its like 100 words, already - only 1900 to go!). But, once again, my mind went completely off track. The main thing that struck me was this:
The main focus of the assignment is Amos - chronologically, the first prophet (mid 8th century BC - thats 750BC to you). So why he's like just plopped in the first third somewhere, is beyond me. I guess they put the major ones first, but then? Anyway, besides the point.
Being a logical human, I would think that the prophecy sequence would go "look, you probably shouldn't do this" to "don't do that - bad stuff might happen" to "bad stuffs gonna happen - you'd better stop" to "its too late already". Amos - first prophet. Whats his message? "Your history, Israel, and theres nothing you can do about it".
So I coined a theory myself - God is using hyperbole (Jesus did it a lot, so, like Son, like Father, why not?) to try and 'shock' Israel into changing there ways. The fact that Amos goes so absolutely the other way of the convenant, (the commentary says he uses Gods 'redemption history' as a negative rather than a positive) suggests to me that God is trying to say "don't just sit back and think you can do whatever you want because I gave this promise to Abraham. I don't need you to fulfil my purposes - you're taking my blessings for granted: watch yourself, or I'll take it all away" in a very extreme kinda way. Like, for instance, Jonah's message to Ninevah - it was, "in three days, Ninevah will be destroyed" - there was no "if you repent, He will relent". However, they did repent, and He did relent.
Unfortunately, for Israel, they did not repent, and they were completely destroyed by the Assyrians. I didn't know, but only Judah returned from captivity under the Babylonians (then Persians). The northern kingdom of Israel was removed from the pages of history altogether.

During lunch, started watching Enter the Dragon starring Bruce Lee, again. I have actually seen, at least, bits, of it before. Has WAY too many parallels with Mortal Kombat, which is weird for a great number of reasons.

Did lesson 9 and 10 on the sax. Finally played something that acutally sounded like a tune - or, bits of it sounded like a tune. These eighth notes really are very difficult to play, and my finger changes are way too slow to be able to make it sound like anything even remotely tuneful.

Finished the chapters in my book on Exodus. Gee - Christianity (or, more correctly, God) has a way of absolutely killing what one thinks is logical thought. There is no way that one could possibly try and base their belief in the God of the bible on a scientif, methodic, scholaratic type base - it just doesn't make sense. I feel sorry for those Christian-science type people - they must have sever psychosis, or huge mental blind spots.
The point is, one sentance of the bible (and here I'm talking Pentateuch type stuff) almost conclusively proves that the document is historically accurate and that Israel did have a miraculous deliverance from Egypt. And then, a few paragraphs later, there is a reference to something that is so insanely contradictory that it just does not fit in.
A good example is that two of the most definitive locations in Exodus (the red sea crossing and the mount Sinai episode) cannot be located geographically (the red sea reference is actually not the red sea - its the "sea of reeds" - and thus it could be any number of 'ponds'), while a number of strange obscure references have been clearly located.
Another example - it mentions the Israelite slaves built two cities in Egypt, which it appears they did. But, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a Pharoah who died suddenly by being drowned. And, surely the point of the Exodus was so that 'all the land of Egypt will know that I am God'? But there is very few references to God or even Israel in Egyptian history.

I think before I started this bible school unit, I, like most other Christians, probably, felt the Old Testament was, on the whole, quite boring, but theres some lovely stuff in there - Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes being my favourites, but also Psalms, Proverbs, the end of Job, etc.
But, even only half way through I've formed another view on the Old Testament - its SCARY. The book is so horribly unpredictable, unexplainable and uncategoriasable that its often safer to just not read it at all.
I was just thinking, having just finished Leviticus, and reading some insane person who is trying, once again, to prove that homosexuality is, for all intents and purposes, endorsed by God, and thus trying to water down the passage in Leviticus which mentions that 'for a man to lie with another man as with a woman is an abomination' - maybe it is possible that the bible doesn't explicity condem homosexual relationships. Well, tell me, where in Leviticus is there anything regarding sex and age? Should we thus assume that God supports child pornography?
I just cannot believe that no-one can take the middle ground, here. That to live in the 21st century is to be so insanely accomodating and, shudder, 'enlightened', that once something is accepted by the general population it is OK. Frankly, there isn't really a good enough argument against homosexuality that will convince anyone who's gone down that road to turn from it. The only reason I know is 'God said so'. Thats good enough for me, because I have accepted who God is and how much He has done, and appreciate that He, frankly, deserves it. And then some. There are two points here:

1. it is unlikely that a non-Christian would choose to even try to give up homosexual desires
2. it is fruitless for him to do so - he still needs the forgiveness of Jesus for all those other little things that all of us do

It thus also confuses me why Christians seem to be so willing to protest against gay marriages, but not seeming to bother about everything else, from white lies to pre-marital sex. Change the sinner - THEN worry about the sin. That was Jesus' plan, as far as I can tell. Not, what all these free-thinking proponents seem to exist. That Jesus accepted them for what they were, full stop. Sure, He did - but it didn't stop there, did it? I believe Zaccheus is the only example we actually see: "I will give back what I stole 2 or 3 times over" - without it being recorded of Jesus saying a word, save "I am coming to your house for dinner". But, it is a very reasonable assumption to think that each sinner ("it is not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick") later reached a similar stage of repentance.

I've told people before - its dangerous for me to think. Later.

Day 11

Submarine Captain: "Whenever we go out from land, we sing this proud naval song:"
Village People: "In the navy, you can sail the seven seas;
In the navy, you can put your mind at ease, etc"
(submarine submerges; Village People drown)

Another not too good sleep night. Woke up the first time about 7.....then kept sleeping/waking/sleeping/waking etc. Maybe because I seemed to disagree with last nights 'fat night'. Eventually got out of bed about 8:30.

Started going through SEEK emails again - only one position that looked promising, so I applied for that. Haven't heard back yet.

Got a phone call from an auntie from church - not sure which one. Apparently there's gonna be a collection on at least two of the times that Rev Rutherford will be here speaking - luckily, I only have to supervise counting, as per usual. However, it seems that it will be during the seminar, not after. So, looks like I'm gonna like miss the point of the whole thing. Again.

Got another phone call from old work saying that the ICAA package had gone there. And, if they insist on sending it to a work address - which seems to be the case - there ain't nothing I can do about it, because there's no allowance on the web-site changing details thing re: unemployment. Stoopid.

Read a tiny bit more of Confessions. I'm up to a very long chapter about reflections on memories - its about a quarter of the book. And, as I said yesterday, its not really very exciting compared to nearly everything previous, which has been fantastically great.

Did my Mandarin lesson 8 straight off in the morning, for a change. Although it has got quite practical in usage fairly quickly (unlike the sax, see below), it has thus got rather difficult, also - "I would like now to go with you to the Beijing Restaurant to eat lunch", etc. Just prior to this, I noticed my chinese character book down in the bookshelf - I feel it might help if I can connect some of these words to characters. Then again, it probably will make things worse.
Although this Pimsleur method is probably the quickest re: memory retention, it gets irritating that you have no idea how to spell it using pinyin, and thus its hard to learn words from other people, cos, even if they spell it, you don't know how to pronounce the letters. I have a vague recollection from some website I visited before, but only very vague.

Finished week 7 lectures. Although it should have been a quite interesting lecture (on Samuel), I, and the live class there it seemed, just couldn't really get excited by it. I did find a part rather enlightening - that of Hannah's prayer, which Mary's prayer echoes in the New Testament (he asked if anyone could pick it - I could, because of the Hillsong song "Exceeding joy", the chorus of which, I discovered quite a while ago, is based on Mary's prayer, even though it has a very old-testament-psalmy feel to it). It is strange, though, (and no-one picked this up - another irritation of studing externally) that Luke would try and parrallel old testament scripture (unlike Matthew, for instance, who does it prolifically), since Luke is writing to Theophilius (or whatever his name is) who has been identified as a non-Jew.

Kinda skipped lunch today - so now I'm hungry. While eating a Chokito (which I ate for the first, and probably last time) and drinking tea, I watched Gothika. A good film, but, while sufficiently creepy and suspenseful, the story was quite loose and predictable, and, again, not all explained very well. But, because the genre is similar, I was forced to draw a comparison with Godsend, and, well, Gothika kicked its butt. But that's not saying a lot.

After that, I went to Garbo (Garden City, Booragoon? I'm believing that shorthand less and less), primarily to buy a new foil for my shaver, since it broke and is thus I could'nt shave since Saturday, cos it was too sharp (F has already mentioned how ironic it is). Since F forgot his shopping on Saturday, I was also suckered into buying globes. Surprisingly, I found the shaver part with considerably more ease than the globes (they were with, like, handyman stuff in KMart - what the?). I then decided to test my theory of whether "The relative enjoyment of Gloria Jean's Very Vanilla Latte is inproportial to size" - since the large size always seems to taste considerably not as good as the regular size. So, I tried the small (only 40c cheaper than regular. Unfortunately, there is also considerable differentiation in VVLs between different Gloria Jean's stores (ie, Leederville is considerably worse than Carousel and Harbour Town), and I am not a frequent proprietor of the Garbo variety. So, although it was good, it wasn't as good as regular sizes I've had before. I am thus doubting my theory.
A girl there commented that she liked my Simpsons T-Shirt. Unfortunately, it wasn't really the comment I was expecting, thus it was one of those moments where I said something quite forgettable, and thought of a much better comment later - along the lines of "I'm just your average fanatic". Its probably the lack of human contact.

Completed lesson 7, 8 and part of lesson 9 on the sax. I stopped not because I had had enough, it was too hard, or time was up, but because I was beginning to gag on the mouthpiece. I think I've figured out something thats wrong: when I was learing trombone, even after learing, say, A, B & C, they'd straight away introduce Hot Cross Buns, or Mary had a little lamb, etc, so it actually feels like you've accomplished something. I must have the capacity now to play 60 million tunes (though none of them very well), but there doesn't (seem) to be anything recognizable in what I'm playing. It is quite de-motivating.

Day 10

Marge: "You feel soft - whats wrong?"
Homer (after being butted by reindeer): "I've been tenderised"

Woke up at about 7, but it was too early so I went back to sleep and woke again at 9:45. Had to rush outside straight away and move the car, because it only gets two hours from 8.

After breakfast, finished watching Elf. It turned out to still be funny, but had a predictable, overly sentimental, shallow ending. Understandable, I guess, since its a more a kiddy show.

Tried to find some articles or stuff for my Solomon assignment, and the next one on Amos, by using Google Scholar, without success. Eventually, I'm just gonna have to face my Unnatural Fear of Libraries.
Anyway, so I discovered that I actually got my dates wrong, and the external being one week later than internal only applies at certain times - ie, when you're completing the course live and they have to send you the DVDs as they're filmed, so you get them a week later. Thus, if I complete the Solomon one as assignment 1, its already overdue. However, if I choose that as assingment 2, I have till week 10. Thus, Amos has to be assignment 1, which is due week 9. However, I really should procrastinate no longer....

Watched lecture 2 of week 7. Have thus finished Judges and now onto Samuel. Most of the lecture, however, was someones lecture presentation thingy, about David.

Watched Godsend while having lunch. Your pretty much typical thriller post Sixth Sense type thing. Storyline not explained well, and ending too open and unsatisfactory. Robert De Niro's talent pretty much wasted, again. He did well, but no good type scenes. The film had potential, I think, but not capitalised on.

Completed lesson 6 of the sax and did a little of lesson 7. I'm still not really very happy with my low note playing (as in anything below A), and not too happy with the high D, or above high F. But it seems to be slowly getting better.

Completed lesson 7 in Mandarin. Getting really very complicated, but at least I can sort of say some kind useful stuff. Like today, after dinner, I told F ("I would like to drink some tea"). It was quite well received - as far as I could tell.

Continued reading my books. Only got through a few pages of The Confessions of St Augustine. However, I seem to be past the 'story' bit and up to his more poetical psalm like musings. The last chapter on the death of his mother was another fantastic chapter - just because of the way she was described - how her submission to her abusive husband won over the respect of her mother-in-law, and eventually led to her husband's conversion, etc.
Almost finished the chapter on the history part of Exodus, the next chapter is on the message part. I think it would be fascinating to be able to study the literature of surrounding civilisations (esp the Egyptians in this case) to try and discover where the Exodus fits into the actual time. However, this being such an important part of biblical study must've been tried many, many times, as yet without a very definitive answer.

Am currently watching Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (starring Jackie Chan) - a rather old film. Still packed full of the trademark Chan comedy, with all his hilarious facial expressions. However, the old film look, sound and bad dubbing makes it rather tiring to watch.

Day 9

Homer (at Frank Grimes' funeral, while sleeping): "Change the channel, Marge."
Lenny: "That's our Homer!"
(everyone laughs)

Succomed, again, to the Taurus Curse - that whenever we go there for lunch, someone's lunch gets forgotten about and comes much later than everyone else's. Today, it was mine. Luckily, my choice of fried beef kway teow was a very good choice, and it tasted so damn good, I didn't really care that it was so late. Sort of. Maybe not. Was interesting seeing the Bennifactor for the first time in a while, due to his thesis, 'n all.

Had to kill time till 3, so went to V's new-fangled-house-thing. Was nowhere near as mansion like as had been described by T. But still pretty impressive. V's room, itself, complete with walk in robe, spa-bath and two sinks ("I never use that one") was about the same size as the entire upstairs here, which consists of three bedrooms. The 'balcony', though, was hardly big enough to stand on. I think I was most impressed by the floor - looked like wood, but was satisfyingly solid and slimy, more like polished stone.

Had a lovely short CMC meeting - went for less than half the time of the usual. Accounts seemed to be well accepted, except that I made a mistake - putting motor vehicle expenses where it should have read minor equipment; one of these days I'll get it right.

Began to watch Elf. It seems OK so far - but I think all the bits from the trailer have been used up already - so I wonder if it will just trail out and be bad. Thats what I'm thinking. However, I was very impressed with myself, cos, even though I drove myself insane for about 15 minutes trying to do it, I finally managed to connect Papa Elf's voice with a cameo off the Simpsons - Bob Newhart (at Krusty's funeral). I'd always assumed that he was being deliberately nervous, or it was some immitator, but he actually speaks like that - "for you see, in a way, in a very meaningful way, I, indeed, all of us, were affected by his comedy even though, uh, some of us, we, uh, didn't, y'know, watch his show".
On TV tonight was Exit Wounds. It hasn't finished yet, but I could turn it off now and not really care. Partly cos I haven't really been concentrating, partly because its another very forgettable type of show - like all them other ones. It seems that Steven Segal just makes bad choices for most of his movies. Half Past Dead, anyone?

Day 8

Lisa: "Must I accept this process of dumbening? Wait...that's not how you spell 'dumbening'. Wait...dumbening isn't even a word!"

Once again, didn't sleep that well. Eventually got out of bed about 8 or so.

Went on the weekly expedition with F begining sometime after 9. F casually informed me that he wasn't going to pay because he had no money, so suggested I withdraw money to pay the bill. Yep. Finished all the shopping (inc 9 more movies - yay!) by 11.
Met someone from cell there - JC (heh). Due to the shock, I think, F forgot his shopping. Though he didn't realise this till we were home. Then he couldn't be bothered going back.
Because I wasn't aware of the time, was suckered in by F into going to KFC for lunch. It wasn't too bad, cos I didn't have breakfast due to lack of milk. Not going to happen again for a while though - hah!

Watched two of the films straight away at home - Bulletproof Monk, which was as bad as I thought it would be. I'm sorry, that Sean William Scott guy is just one of those bad actors that makes any film bad. But it wasn't just him.
The other film was much better - Fist of Fury starring Bruce Lee - I think the first Bruce Lee film I've ever seen in full. The martial arts was really great, but the story quite holey and draggy. Interesting that I realised just before I started watching that its the film that Fist of Legend (one of the Jet Li films I own) was based on. However, the story much better in the Jet Li one. And the Japanese are given some redeemable characters.
Also watched most of My Fair Lady (F's token choice) - but I didn't realise its like a 2.5 hour film - so it also dragged for me. And, didn't really seem to conclude anything in the end. Some parts really funny though - like the robotic sequence at the racetrack.

I did lesson 6 in Mandarin. Suddenly got horribly hard - "I would like to go to your place to eat" - I think I'll just stick to my favourite phrase ("I don't understand - you speak what?").

Finished the chapter of Patriachs in Genesis, up to the beginning of Exodus. I think I fell asleep as I was reading - was woken up by F re: dinner, which is as follows.

So, H was picking us up at 7 to go to Jaws in the city - a sushi buffet. I was assured there'd be the chicken stuff, etc. So then we picked up a friend of H's (S), whose idea this was in the first place. F thought we should go to the Japanese place in Subi instead - forget the name, they have a good beef dish there - very tender. But she convinced him to 'try something new', so that was that.
Probably spent about 15 minutes driving around the city trying to find a spot. Along King Street - nothing, then around along St Georges to the Central Park one - closed, then gave up so did a big round back to some $6.50 per night thing on Murray. So walked to Jaws - and it was overfull. Decided we had to eat somewhere in the city, now, since we'd already paid for parking - so just gave up and went to Takas. I almost chose the Chicken Katsu sushi, then decided it wouldn't be enough, so had the normal chicken katsu instead. Great.

Day 7

Lisa: "I am the lizard queen!"

Using the above quote for two reasons:

1. Listening to a Powderfinger song yesterday "(Return of) the Electric Horseman" from Double Allergic (as I recall), which is one of those 30 minute tracks with like 5 different songs - one of which begins 'I am the lizard queen', and seems to be talking about characters reminiscient of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. In the first person I might add.
2. Began reading Planet Simpson, which F gave me for my 24th back in January - gives a brief picture of how far behind I am in my reading. Anyway, so the very first episode mentioned in the introductory chapter is "Selma's Choice", where Selma takes Bart & Lisa to Duff Gardens, Bart pushes Lisa into the 'water' on the boat ride, and Lisa thus becomes quite hallucinogenic-like. "We found this one swimming naked in the pond".

Woke up satisfactorily at 9:10. Still no milk, and I decided that I should try and stem my caffeine addiction, so I didn't buy any - it can wait till the weekly shopping expedition tommorrow.

Since I'm not ready to go to the library and borrow books for my Solomon assignment, yet, I watched lecture 1 of week 7. I decided that its better if I can get ahead in one area, cos that will help later on. I also read about a chapter of the textbook - the end of the first part of Genesis (introduction, chp 1-11) up to near the end of the second part (patriachs, chp 11-end). Thoroughly enjoyable reading - learning a bit about egyptian/mesoptainian history, not just biblical history.

Completed lesson 5 in Mandarin. Up to saying "I would like to eat something", etc. Still getting through it quite easily.

Did about half an hour on the sax, as far as I can tell. The reason its not so clear is that I did an intermittent warm-up of about 15 minutes while waiting for the site to load where the lessons are. It didn't, so I had to put it on hiatus and try later. I ended up downloading the first 10 lessons, just in case it happens again. Completed lesson 5 and about half of lesson 6. Rather difficult, but, logically, satisfying that I can get through it, and that it actually kinda sounds like something a bit tuneful. Most lines (consisting of at least 6 bars each) I have to repeat - often repeating a bar or a few bars many times so I can get it right - because of my notation to fingering problem. The last few lines today (in lesson 6) introduced B-flat (as in, middle B-flat, not low B-flat - which denotes the key of the sax). Interesting because it involves a key not used before. Essentially, there are 6 main positions - B is the left-hand index finger, A adds the LH middle finger, G adds LH ring finger, F adds right-hand index finger, E adds RH middle finger, D adds RH ring finger. However, B-flat involves moving the finger used to make an A to a small button between the B and A key - so its not easy to go from C (which is the LH middle finger ONLY), to B (LH index finger ONLY) to B-flat, to A (which is both fingers). Incidentally, there are apparently at least four ways to play B-flat, an interesting one being the LH index finger and the RH index finger (used to play F, with the other fingers).

Watched two films today - The Order (or The Sin Eater as it was released here), which wasn't good. I kept thinking, OK, so this guy takes the sin of these dying people as long as they confess. Um, well, thats what Jesus does - they don't need a human to perform this stupid ritual. But... I guess people don't believe it could be so easy. Strange that the Knight's Tale guy would even try and go for a film like that.

The other was Murder by Numbers. Hmm... forgettable, I think. Could've been done way better. The main problem was they never really explained the point - crime proves we're free? Right....

Unfortunately, while watching said film, missed the encore presentation of Australian Princess. Whatever shall I do now?

Day 6

Homer: "Compu-Golbal-Hyper-Mega-Net, junior vice president Homer Simpson speaking, how may I direct your call?"
(hands phone to Marge)
Homer: "It's Patty."

Was woken up by F (again - 3 days out of 4), this time by Hillsongs, at 8:30. Went to eat cereal, but the milk was out of date. Thought it foolish to go shopping just to buy milk, so I went without. However, a day without tea is one day too many, so I'll definitely have to buy tommorrow.

Watched the 2nd half of Reloaded. Thoroughly enjoyed the Architech speech.

Watched lecture 3 of week 6. Got to about 5 minutes to go, then foolishly pressed the skip backwards button, cos I thought I got a verse reference wrong (which it turned out I didn't) - so the DVD stopped working, and I had to watch the last 5 minutes downstairs. Really keen on learning more Hebrew - but it will take time, I think.

Finally finished Oscar & Lucinda, in between hanging out washing. Very stupid ending - it was insanely short and spontaneous, after the ludicrously slow and predictable build up. I'm still interested in seeing the film though - just to see how they do certain stuff. And cos I think Ralph Fiennes is a good actor. And Cate Blanchett isn't too unbearable.

Watched House while finishing off September quarter accounts, and entering some transactions for October. They advertised the episode as getting rid of someone, then, surprisingly, they didn't get rid of anyone, so now they say they're doing that in a double episode (over two days) next week. Right, sure.

Did lesson 4 in Mandarin. Its getting a bit more complicated now, throwing in directions to weird places, and words that sound way too much like each other and mean very similar things. "Where? Over there!" etc.

Finished lesson 4 of the sax with difficulty, and really struggled through lesson 5. My main problem, actually, was trying to read the music while going one quarter beat at a time, and then trying to remember which combination goes with which note. Not easy - I got muddled up a lot. But, generally, at least, the actual playing of notes seemed to be going on the whole quite OK. Sort of.

Watched two films at night, also from B's collection - Hulk, which was very bad, and the In Laws (with Michael Douglas and Albert Brooks) which was quite enjoyable. Now waiting for my weekly instalment of Ghost in the Shell. Not a patch on Evangelion, I have to say, but certainly not half bad.

Day 5

Lisa (singing): "So we'll march day and night, the girls and the fellas, we'll march till we drop or else fold like umbrellas"

Slept a bit better today - woke up at 9.

After breakfast, read a little of the book. Then, watched the end of the Basketball Diaries. Ended pretty badly - things were going really bad, then he got arrested, somehow came clean came out and read some uninspiring words. The end.

Started lecture 2 of week 6 on my upstairs DVD player - then, I went to rewind cos I missed a verse, and it stuffed up again so had to go downstairs. Finished lecture 2, and started lecture 3 - only because he had written up Deuteronomy 6:4-5 up in hebrew, then proceeded to teach the class how to speak it - the Shema (if I remember correctly), the first part (v4) which reads (as phonetically as possible) Shema Israel Adonai Elohinu Adonai Ahad - hear, o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Verse 5 was long and had a lot of syllables that sounded very similar - it will take me a while to learn that stuff.

I then decided that I couldn't live on without bread, so took a 45 minute walk (there and back) to Broadway for bread, cheese and glad wrap. Was certainly long enough - it also almost rained, but a few spots only.

Actually, when I got back, wasn't that hungry, so started watching my final film (and the best as it turned out - lucky I saved it) Batman. Got about halfway through and discovered I was hungry, so made my cafe-style toasted sandwhich. Man, it was worth the walk! Finished lunch about three quarters through the film - so took the DVD upstairs to finish watching while I did accounts. Discovered that there is a quote from Batman in my favourite Simpsons episode (Last Exit to Springfield) where the Joker reaches for "mirror! the mirror!" then smashes it while laughing crazily, as his face is being redone. All in all - infinitely better than Batman Begins - in pretty much every way. But especially in a comic book sense. Got an opinion about that - mention it later, maybe.

Played through lesson 4 of the Sax lessons - very breathless-making, due to it mainly being based on quarter notes. Will definitely have to review that one tommorrow.

Completed lesson 3 of Mandarin chinese, but did it while doing more church account stuff, so, again, not really concentrating for most of it. But I did fine with the conversation at the end, so I'll just keep moving on - there is 13 more to go, and this is just Mandarin 1 of at least 3.

Started watching the Matrix Reloaded again, since B has it in his, of questionable legality, collection. Although there are parts of it I like, like some conversations, esp the Architecht at the end, there is plenty I don't like, like most of the Zion scenes, and most involving that french guy.

I know my Simpsons quote for tommorrow - from today's episode involving Bill Gates and Lord of the Flies.

Day 4

Mrs. Nahasapenapetilan (snr): "Surely you are aware of your Brahmaian heritage?"
Bart: "As long as you have absolutely no follow-up questions - yes. Yes, we are."
Lisa: "Fully. We have to go now"

Was again pretty much forced out of bed at 8:30. Didn't have to move the car cos I sorta stole the parking spot. Yay!

After breakfast, and another chapter of Oscar & Lucinda (I managed another 2 or so more throughout the rest of the day), watched the Butterfly Effect. It was pretty much as I expected - ie very little to do with the Butterfly Effect (most actions had a very direct cause/effect relationship), no scientific basis (he changes history by reading his own journal notes - what the?) and a bad ending (where he goes back to his birth - by watching a home movie - and chokes himself to death with his umbilical cord). Put this together with the irritating Aston Kutcher - not a very good film. But, at least I can say I've watched it now.

Watched the first lecture of week 6. Actually, watched bits of it a few times (which is not really allowed) because it kept skipping around on my DVD player. Then, I took it downstairs and it worked fine. Its not as good downstairs though, cos I have to like lie on the uncomfortable corrugated carpet thing, and cannot write easily. Plus, its in the way of others.

After lunch, did lesson 2 of Mandarin Chinese. Didn't really concentrate that hard cos I was doing some internet thing - I believe I was sorting out the house bills at the time. It didn't really matter, though, because I knew most of the stuff already. Actually, I knew all of it - this is really just a memory refresher thing.

Went for a walk really just down 1 street to post some letters re: FCC account payments. It was just too short, so I went down Hampden and along Stirling Hwy then back up Winthrop Av. I think it took like 15 minutes or less - but its a start at least.

Got to my saxaphone after 4 - played for about 25 minutes or so. Finished lesson 2 pretty easily, and moved through lesson 3 with surprisingly few mistakes - especially regarding the switching from middle C up (1 note) to high D, which involves going from 1 key, to 6 keys and the octave key, and its been bugging me for months.

Before the Simpsons, and a also after but before dinner, started watching the Basketball Diaries. Another, I think surprisingly, enjoyable film. Of course, I don't think its yet reached the point of him being discovered as a writer, or whatever, so maybe the ending will suck, but, for now, I'm just happy recognising all the Sopranos stars - Lorraine Bracco (Tony's phsyciatrist) is Leonardo's mother, the guy who played Pussy has a small role where he gets vomited on and chases them all, and the guy who plays Christopher Moltisanti is Leonardo's friend who dies of Leukeamia.

Day 3

Homer: "I love these lazy Saturdays"
Marge: "Its Wednesday"
Homer: "Aah!" (rushes off to work)
* * *
Homer: "I love these real Saturdays - unliked that stupid fake Saturday which almost got me fired!"

Slept in till 8:30, but it was a struggle - more showers and ER. After my shower, had to move my car off the street and park it in the lot. I left it there, so my other housemate (B) has to park his car on the street now.

Went for my interview at 11. Lasted till 12:30. They mentioned there might be something, but I'm not really being that hopeful - cos its unlikely it'll turn out to be what I'm wanting.

Watched the rest of Apocalypse Now Redux, which I started watching last night. Not only was it about hours long, it was very disappointing. I expected more from Mr Godfather. I kinda enjoyed it up till around about just after the time when Robert Duvall says "I love the smell of napalm in the morning".

Also watched the rest of 28 Days Later, having seen the second half yesterday afternoon. Another disappointing film - extremely unscary and predictable for a start. I think the first few scenes walking around London and it being devoid of anything was quite good - afterwards, just the typical odd zombie appearance-type-thing.

Watched the final lecture of week 5. Mainly made up of students giving presentations for their essay thing - thus, didn't really learn much. Oh well. Week 6 is at least partly on Deuteronomy - yay!

Started my Mandarin again at lesson 1. Did it very easily, so sorted out my sock pairs and did some general sorting out of stuff at the same time. Played my sax for about 20 minutes straight after. The internet seemed to be down for a while, so I had to play just random stuff for about 5 minutes, but after that I moved onto the lessons. Did the first two. I think lesson 1 went OK, but I struggled a little with lesson two. And as for lesson three, well.......not good.

I then read a chapter of Oscar & Lucinda - it will be a happy day when I finish that book. Then, after the Simpsons, I started watching Born on the 4th of July, and continued it after dinner. Surprisingly, since I have a very mixed opinion of Mr Oliver Stone (JFK was great, but Alexander was shocking, Any Given Sunday had its moments, as did Wall Street, and I'm not a fan of Platoon), it was actually quite enjoyable, and I didn't find Tom Cruise as irritating as I thought I would. Freakily, I can see lots of parallels with Vanilla Sky....