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.