"we're gonna dance in the river...." - delirious?

Woke up with alarm at 7:15 - cos didn't have to pray. Oh, bliss! Well, not really - I was still tired. Plus I had to rush more.

Worked 9-3.

Finished Prayer:Letters to Malcolm and moved straight on to Reflections on the Psalms. The prayer thing got a little abstract and off the prayer point a lot of the time. Though there was a great chapter on why its a burden and why it will probably remain so for a long time.

Continued loading on more programmes and stuff. But the computer is just going so ridiculously slow, it takes me ages to do anything. I am really at a loss about it - and I don't want to take it to anyone, cos they'll probably just charge me money to tell me thats as fast as it will ever go, like those other people, even though they're wrong.

Watched 'X2'. Not as good as I remember it in the theatre. Unlike the other film I watched at the same time - 'Matrix Reloaded' - which has gotten considerably better with repeated viewings. Bizzare.

Left for Delirious? at 6 - got to Riverview around 6:25. Thus, got a semi-good kinda position in the line. Had a small conversation with some people who spoke a strange language - almost sounded African though they looked quite Asian - who had no idea, really, about what sort of music Delirious? played - their pastor just told them to go, or something. Got in around 7:05. The Riverview band came on at 7:30 and played till about 8. Then Delirious? came on around 8:30 and played till 10:10.

First was Here I am send me (from Mission Bell), then Rain Down (from World Service). I'm not gonna be able to remember the order of what they played, but the songs that I recall were:
The Mission Bell:
Now is the time, Miracle Maker, Paint the town red, Solid Rock, Take off my shoes
World Service:
Inside Outside, God in Heaven, Majesty (here I am)
King of Fools:
History Maker, What a Friend I've Found
Cutting Edge:
Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?
There was also at least 1 song I didn't know - something about 'flying', or something. There seemed to be quite a few people who knew that song but not many others, which leads me to believe that its from 'Touch', the apparent crossover albumn.
There was also a lot of 'filler' type stuff, which included choruses which sounded like they may be from songs, but might not have been.
And the best part was when Martin Smith got us all to join hands and jump to the chorus of 'we're gonna dance in the river'.
Although his voice seemed to hold up, Riverview seems to have a sound system that doesn't do the band justice. And they now have all these lovely cushioned seats like a movie theatre, but the whole thing was standing up.

Then, as is my custom, I bought a shirt. A d-shirt (thats my own invention - I think its pretty cool).

Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson): "Sir, may I let loose a short, violent exclamation?"

Prince Regent (Hugh Laurie): "Why, certainly"
Blackadder: "DAMN!"

Woke up at 6 (kind of). Did some prayer stuff, but it was silent and I was daydreaming. So while it was technically about 20 minutes, I think, practically, it was less than 5.

Went and got my car. Pretty much problem free. I thought of the above quote when, if driving, someone caused my car to get another dent. Except that it would likely be a long, violent exclamation.

Took the wrong lane on Roberts road, so had to do a roundabout on Wellington street - thus arrived 10 minutes late. No matter....

Worked 9:10 - 3:20.

Got some software from my new house, and swapped my CD rack for the next one (to continue ripping). Have decided to install everything onto the new harddrive and format the old one. During the Windows installation I, almost accidentally, removed the partition from drive D. So, thats gone now. I still can't get rid of this stoopid extra CD player and get it to be a DVD instead - its driving me insane. Plus my computer is still getting slower and slower, and the soundcard is being really buzzy.

Went to Dewsons again looking for free trade coffee. There was none.

Watched some bonus features from 'Road to Perdition'. Got season 1 of The Sopranos to watch again - however, disc 1 is missing. Whoever the last person I lent it to was has apparently stolen that 1 disc. So I was forced to start at disc 2. Watched only half of one episode, plus the bonus feature - a featurette mainly about Tony.

Amazing how one gets used to power steering, 1.5L engines, good sound systems, etc. I still don't think its worth $18k, but I can certainly appreciate some of the advantages over, say, V's car.

Tis Delirious? tommorrow......Keep having their songs going through my head - mainly 'Now is the time', which is kinda weird cos theres plenty off their last CD that I like better - 'Our God reigns', 'Love is a miracle', 'Miracle Maker' and 'Solid Rock' at least.

More PS.....how can one get enough of it? I thought the journal looked pretty cool, and it was only $4......

"Just one more thing, and then its done" - Michael Sullivan, Road to Perdition

Woke up with alarm at 7:15.

Drove V's car to church. Had the windows down initially, but it was actually too cold.

Got results for OT Survey - they had been forwarded to B's address. Got a B - 82%. A's start at 85, so thats a bit of a gyp. But, hey, I'm not complaining.

Dropped V's car back at his house, then went to WL's house for Chinese New Year lunch. Saw a bit of Alien 3 on their foxtel - it was pretty gross. Left at about 2:30.

Had to explain to parents how to install some software that had been deleted during the crisis event. It wasn't too painful....

Did more church account stuff - pretty much completely up to date now, except for one cheque which needs another signature, and people that haven't claimed their money.

Finished watching 'Road to Perdition'. I don't think I realised before that the reason Michael (snr.) went out and killed Mr Rooney (snr.) and his croonies was so that he would then be allowed to kill Mr Rooney (jr.) cos, as they said, no-one would want him around once his old man was gone.
Am also trying to draw parallels with 'Untouchables', and, thusly, the 'real' 1930s Chicago mob scene. However, the only real common thread is Frank Nitti - who in 'Road to Perdition' is a neat, polite, head boss type guy, and in 'Untouchables' is a crazy, white-suited kill everyone type guy.
I'm also a little confused that the Irish and Italian gangsters seem to be all mixed up in one big group, which I find kinda hard to believe.

Saw Federer win the open final rather easily (after the first two sets). Had a good laugh at all the silly commentators who were barracking (rather obviously) for the other guy.

Now its 10, and I'm tired and I'm gonna sleep soon. Still trying to wake up at 6 tommorrow - and hope that FD wakes up by 8 so I can get my car.......

Heres a picture of my watch. Note the three golden dials, which do nothing.

Lunchlady Doris: "The kitchen staff are complaining of rat infestation. I want to hire a new staff."

Woke up around 8:15.

Watched some Video Hits/Rage. Saw some very bad stuff (ie Lee Harding's 'Wasabi', Sugababes, Pussycat Dolls, etc), but also some quite good stuff (U2, Bernard Fanning, Eurythmics, Coldplay).

Went grocery shopping. Saw Rich & GF - I was kinda surprised, since they live in West Perth that they'd be shopping at Subi. Though I guess its closer than Crawley.
Driving around looking for a spot for like 10 minutes - nothing. So I told God out loud that I was getting pretty bored and could we please have a spot thankyou (though I wasn't as polite). And wouldn't you know it - turn the corner and there was one right there. And it was really close to the entrance, too. But the weirdest thing - it wasn't as if a car had just pulled out, and there were plenty of other cars around, but noone was going for that spot. I kept expecting some angry person to start yelling, cos they were waiting for it and we didn't see them, or something. I was really befuddled.
Saw a weird Subway sign, too. It listed out the times it was open, as follows:
Monday 8AM - 10PM
Tuesday 8AM - 10PM
Wednesday 8AM - 10PM
Thursday 8AM - 10PM
Friday 8AM - 10PM
Saturday 8AM - 10PM
Sunday 8AM - 10PM
Now, wouldn't it've been much smarter to say, 'open 8AM - 10PM, seven days a week'? As FD said, they probably just want to fill up the A4 sheet of paper.
Went into a frame shop to try and buy a frame for my CA thingy. But its an odd sized piece of paper, and I wasn't confident that the non-standard size (between A4 and A3) was big enough.

Katty offerred to buy KFC for lunch. I wanted Mountain Doo, and it turned out that there were no 600ml bottles, but she managed to convince them to give me two cans instead - which means I got about 150ml more....

Incidentally, the car place wasn't open. So, now I'll have to do a 'leap of faith' thingy, since there is no other convenient time to return V's car except tommorrow, then I'll just have to go to the place at 8:30 on Monday morning and hope there isn't any sudden problem. If there is, I'll just have to sue, I guess.

Started watching 'And Now for Something Completely Different'. Has quite a few good sketches on it, but, obviously, since its only an 85 minute show, it misses out plenty of really good sketches, too. Especially the ones that run for an entire episode.

Watched 'Just Like Heaven', but had to watch it on FD's laptop, since it didn't work on the Xbox. It was quite an enjoyable film, but was in most parts too much like 'Ghost' and in other parts too much like '50 First Dates' and in other parts too much like you're standard run of the mill romantic comedy, and it didn't seem to make a difference that she was invisible to everyone else.

Did about an hour and a half more of FCC accounts. Have thus almost got back on schedule - only a few cheques to write and a lot of cash to pay. Also, I didn't get the collection sheet from last week - so I hope they kept it somewhere.

Watched a tiny bit of 'Road to Perdition'. But so far theres only been the suggestion of gangster business.

Watched 'Jumanji' on TV after The Simpsons (Who Shot Mr Burns pt 1 - a classic on so many levels). Its still a great film. I thought I remember hearing some rumour that they were making Jumanji 2 - but I may just be crazy.

Watched 'The Green Mile' on channel 7 after that. A way too long show, though - 3.5 hours with ads. I think this is the second time I've seen it, and I guess I watched it more closely, cos it seemed to be a lot closer to the book than I remember. Though I think Stephen King's view of good & evil is way too oversimplified in that show. Especially since John Coffey (I believe on purpose) indirectly causes the death of Wild Billy - but this is seen as a perfectly good thing (cos hes a bad man, boss).

Have finished ripping all my CDs up to about J - with the exception of Visions by Jakatta, since it is quite scratched, and my CD-ROM drive doesn't recognise it. However, I know my DVD-ROM drive does - but it is still not being recognised itself. So I got FD to burn me a new copy of it, since it works in his laptop.
And thats one full CD holder done - so I'll have to change it with a new one. And while I'm doing that, I should remember to get those Todd Agnew CDs for Val....but I probably won't.

And finally, another PS picture. The bag was so much better this year - a like proper type one instead of the plastic ones from previous years. But, its obviously not supposed to be used as a heavy duty carrying implement - indeed, mine has developed a tear down the side already. But, damn, it looks pretty impressive......

Homer: "I'm on my way!"

(guessing a Wheel of Fortune puzzle, just after Marge tells him to remember to pick up Bart)

Using this quote, cos that scene was in my head today for some reason. And then, I was watching The Simpsons, and it was that episode. And, even stranger, I was watching news headlines on the other channel, so missed the starting credits etc, and that exact phrase was the first thing I saw of the episode. Ooooooooohhh!

Woke up at 6 - very tired. Finished my shower around 6:45 again. Did a little praying, but not much, cos I was too tired. Did a little more reading, but still too tired. Finished making lunch by 8, so watched more Star Wars Episode 1 till 8:20. Must've got all green lights, or something, cos got to work by 8:45.

Worked 9-3.

Went to Koorong after, cos I had to spend my $10 voucher before it expires on Wednesday. Bought 'Mere Christianity' by CS Lewis - cos its such a great book. Yay!

Went and got petrol for V's car. Somehow it fit more than 30 litres. Weird having these analogue fuel gauges - it took the entire journey from the petrol station to the house for it to make it up to full.

Started ripping some more CDs. Have now finished the 'Ds'.

Rang Harvest West and confirmed that results had been sent out on the 10th. However, could not confirm which address they had been sent to - apparently, the guys gonna check on Monday. In any case, though, I guess, a new one will be sent then. Hopefully, I haven't failed OT Survey, cos if I had it would be wiser doing it again straight away, since it is 'live' this sem.

Finished watching Episode 1. Started watching Episode 2. Fantastic.

My phone died from lack of power early afternoon. Checked it around 10pm, and apparently my car is ready. Am thus gonna pop in tommorrow morning (probably). I don't forsee a problem, but the lady seemed pretty insistant that I ring her first... Which is good, cos it means I can return V's car to his house on Sunday - otherwise, it would've been pretty inconvenient.

Got my contract for my new job today. Haven't had time to read it - I figure I shall have to scrutinise it fairly closely, what with the 'less hours' arrangement, 'n all.
I also tried once again to find them on the CA website, so I can put it in as change of workplace. Searched just under 'pa', and found them like that. I entered the start date as 7/2, since thats what their letter says. But then you have to put 'position' and 'department'....though I guess it doesn't really matter. I put 'accountant' and 'business services' - as general as possible.

Went out for dinner to Tak Chi (or whatever) for chicken rice. That chicken rice was pretty nice. (blah)
Was gonna go to Indiana Teahouse for dessert, but, at the last minute, people decided they wanted to do shopping, so went to Harbourtown (incidentally, they didn't end up buying anything). I, however, got my briefcase (for $32) and two DVDs (for $15 each) - The Road to Perdition, and And Now for Something Completely Different - a movie (though only 85 minutes) of Monty Python Sketches. I noted that channel 10 played it on boxing day, but I was in Yallingup so couldn't watch it. I think its difficult to go wrong with a 'best of' Monty Python, though. I was looking through the chapters, and the first sketch is 'how not to be seen', which is certainly one I really like. Especially with the guy going crazy at the end and blowing up stuff with mushroom clouds......

Watched more of Episode 2. Saw a little tennis - 'The guy who always wins' and 'the guy whos gonna lose' were kinda even at 1 set all. Then 'the guy who always wins' won the next 6-0 and was winning the last 4-1. So now 'the guy who always wins' will be playing 'the guy who, really, has absolutely no chance even though he may be a sentimental favourite' in the final.
Such a pity that I really don't care.......

Apu-like storeowner - "Celebrate the independance of your country by blowing up a small part of it"

Woke up about 8:45. Had my shower, ate a little breakfast, read a little bit more of 'Prayer: Letters to Malcolm'. Then it was 9:30 and time to leave.

Had prayer and stuff till 1. Quite a small group, but fun.

Then went across the road for lunch - ended up at Snaak again, cos Taurus was full (dur!). There were some like tame birds just sitting outside. There were two big cockatoos, one which was just sitting there saying 'hello', and the other was running around looking for people to bite. Then the guy comes out and they say it bites and he goes 'no, no', so my namesake+y reaches out to pat it and it bites him. Then it was running after peoples shoes. Anyway....
After I finished and came out, it was sitting in the middle of the sidewalk drinking A&M Root Beer. Explain it all, I guess....

Then we all went off to Shelley foreshore - got there about 2:30. Kicked a bit of soccer, played some Taboo and Chinese Checkers, ate some hotdogs, drank some coke. Some other people played a bit of cricket (ahem). I saw The Tishbite playing with some kiddies half his size, but not letting up on the ferocity of the bowling action. I tried sitting in a tree - worked well for a while.

Fireworks started at 8. They were.....great. As said the two guys next to me, too. I think the part they enjoyed most was yelling at the people that kept walking in front of us. Though some of the music was OK.

Went back by Fremantle, cos I'm pretty sure the narrows was closed. Got back about 9:15. Super tired. And still have to work tommorrow......

Homer: "Oh, you know, sometimes I'll be quirky. I'll be quirky? Alberqerque! They're gonna move the team!"

Woke up at 6. Had my shower around 6:15 and finished about 6:45. Did some praying - read Psalm 116 (pseudo aloud), cos thats the verse that that Richard Johnson (or whatever his name was) read at the first service of 2 February 1788 (as I recall). It only lasted about 10 minutes or so, though.

I was thus ready by like 7:30 - read a lot more of the Prayers: Letters to Malcolm - up to like number 13 now. Its certainly intriguing stuff - almost like The Screwtape Letters, but from the opposite perspective.

Incidentally, I forgot to mention there was a lovely rainstorm last night, starting at about 8:15. There were a few more periods in the early morning, but it had pretty much stopped by the time I started driving.

Worked 9-3. Had to do some manual labour, cos they didn't have anyone to move these huge blocks of solid concrete which they had got from Subiaco oval. And apart from almost causing my arms to break off (there were about 18 of the things), they were also covered in just rained mud sludge, which was nearly all transferred to me. I spent a large part of tonight washing and rewashing my shorts (almost brand new, beige coloured). I think most of the mud is gone now. I'm a little worried about the shirt, though. It appeared clean after the first wash, but now - I donno if its losing its colour or its just the light or the dirt has been transferred to the other side as well - but it seems to have a rather reddish tinge, even though its black. Or dark blue. Whatever.

Did more ripping of CDs - have finished off the C's. My DVD-ROM drive is still not working, so I was trying to see if the connection was loose, then my new harddrive 'failed'. Luckily, it seems that the problem is only a flaky power cable, so it seems to be OK now.

Finally did some substantial stuff re: church accounts - probably spent about 2 hours on it. But theres still quite a bit to put in.

Watched some Simpsons from AV's collection - saw 'hungry hungry Homer' (hence the quote), and also the Behind the Laughter one. By far the best bit is the stupid voice-over guy's insanely complicated analogies, ie "it was all coming up roses for the Simpsons, but those roses contained poisonous bees of mistrust", etc.

After The Simpsons and Futurama, I started watching Starwars Episode 1, again. Just for something to do. I stopped about 3/4 way through at 10.

A long day tommorrow, it seems. Although I don't particularly want to stay so long on the foreshore, since I have never seen those skyworks thingys, maybe I should suffer at least this one time. I hope they have a few activities planned, though - I don't wanna be bored. And I still don't know how to get home after.......

Incidentally, its been one week since PS began.......so quick already.
So, in memorandum.....
May I never take it off.
(at least, metaphorically)

Dr Nick Riviera: "Did you go to Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?"

Woke up at 6. Managed to get to the knee point, but still too tired to concentrate. After reading a bit of CS Lewis' 'Prayer: Letters to Malcolm', he made the explicit point that it is better to pray on a noisy train fully-awake, then wait till a quiet bedroom and be tired. I will thus ignore this piousness tommorrow (since it will be Wednesday - it should be day two, but I haven't managed it once, yet) and have my shower first.

As you would have guessed, if you were a steady reader of this blog, I finished 'The Pilgrim's Regress' this morning - having quite a bit of time, since I didn't pray I was ready by 7:45. I think it is a book I shall have to read again at a later time to try and understand it better. Apparently, it is Lewis' first fiction work, so maybe its not so surprising that it is so confusing. As he says, the experiences in the book are quite unique to him.
However, 'Prayer: Letters to Malcolm' (apparently his last book) is once again the genius which I have come to expect from CS Lewis. Malcolm is an imaginary friend, sure, but you wouldn't know it if you didn't know it (!!). I'm up to about letter 4, and his views are brilliant. Bold, yet understanding - pious, yet accessible - learned, yet humble. For example, I know that Catholics like to pray to saints, and this is a huge no-no for charismatics, it seems. Yet Lewis says - if one can ask the living for prayer, then why not the dead? If the argument is 'well, cos they're dead', then we obviously don't really mean to rely on verses such as 'great cloud of witnesses'.

Worked 9-3, cos it was hot and I was almost sleeping at about 1. Got more banana cake - pretty darn tasty. Got a phone call re: Australia Day - lasting from 10am right through to 8:30pm. And probably later, since I think the narrows is closed till about 10pm.

At the intersection of Thomas road and Wellington street/Roberts road, I was at the front of the line at the traffic light, and it was on a bit of a slope and I forgot how high the clutch is in V's car. Anyway, I made the tires kinda screech. At least, I'm pretty sure it was me. Whoops. Was playing 'God He Reigns' at the time.....heh.
There is also a strange phenomenon, where there is a light that is continually flashing, which looks like an airbag sign. But I wouldn't have thought a car that old (and that small) would've ever had airbags. And I don't know why it would be flashing.

Did more music sorting stuff. Ripping more CDs - up to Coldplay. I have managed to sort out all my top rated (ie ipod) songs, such that I could change it back to automatic update and it should be fine. Except for one song - 'My Glorious' by Delirious? which I deleted by accident. Also, cos I've rated some of V's songs (I think just a few from the Kill Bill soundtrack), I once again have too many songs. However, once I rip up to Hillsong again at the lower bitrate, I should have extra space.

Finished watching 'Schindler's List'. I never get tired of that film - which is strange, since its so long and in black and white and, really, not what you'd call 'entertainment'. I'm thinking I have a kinda unhealthy obsession with WWII, especially since I have practically no interest in, say, the Vietnam or Gulf wars. Though some of the older ones, like the two American wars and the hundred years war I find rather fascinating.
But there's something about the, I guess, 'clinicalness' of the German army in WWII that is intruiging. I wonder if it would be possible to read Mein Kampf or watch Triumph of the Will and not attract CIA attention......heh. Even though I have read far less bigotted stuff than I'm sure Mein Kampf is and hated every second of it, I feel that Adolf Hitler was so crazy as to be interesting from that perspective. Maybe?

Up to 2 Kings chapter 5. Elijah has gone and Elisha is now doing his thing. I'm missing my Apocrypha, though. When I look at my bible from the side and see that I'm barely a quarter way through it (though that doesn't count Isaiah and those few other prophets), it makes me think I'm never gonna get to it. Certainly not before next semester starts, and thus not till after it ends. At least.....
And I still don't have my booklist, yet my Koorong voucher expires in 7 days. I figure I should just go in tommorrow and do some browsing. Maybe buy another CS Lewis book? Heh!

"Its a bird........its a plane............no.......its Sampson!"

What Chris Hill was saying on Friday. Using in reference to V's car - a speedy little thing.

Woke up at 6, attempting to do that prayer thing as suggested by Mike G. As I suspected, since I was really tired last night, I pretty much just lay around in bed till 7. Thus, I have to try tommorrow. I might try having the shower first - but I'm still not sure that will work.

V's car has no air-conditioning (or power steering, or central locking, or CD-player.....), but that sun-protector thing works really well. And, at least for today, having both windows down was enough. Unfortunately, I was behind a super smokey smelly car again, so I had to like hold my breath for a while.
Got up to a Jamiroquai song (I can still use my ipod, cos he has a cigarette lighter and a radio) and the base was making the whole car vibrate, even though the volume was only slightly audible. He has the bass up WAY too high. I found the knob and turned it down. It makes it sound quite tinny, but at least you can have it fairly loudish without it sounding like the T-rex from Jurassic Park is approaching.
I donno if it was cos I was wearing slides cos of my foot, and trying to put less pressure on it, but it was making my leg really ache having it in that position over the accelerator. I'm thinking the cars a bit small for me, cos I want the chair to go back further and it won't.

Worked 9-4. Got given banana cake and coffee. Was pretty pleased with my progress today. Confirmed that I'm taking Australia Day off.

Almost finished The Pilgrim's Regress. FYI, the pilgrim has already regressed. I have to say I haven't understood most of it so far. Like most of CS Lewis' fiction books (though the only others I've read is the Narnia Chronicles), it would be good if I could have a detailed guide as to what the stuff means. Most of it I'm only guessing. Especially his continuous reference to Latin and stuff of that ilk. I believe the other books in this book (!!) are non-fiction essays, so I'll probably enjoy those a lot more.

I finished 1 Kings on Thursday morning, and read a tiny bit of the 1st chapter of 2 Kings. We're still with Elijah, though Elisha is gonna take over soon, and Ahab is dead already.

Got a phone call from parents re: computer problems. Apparently their Outlook Express is telling them its got problems, but refuses to be re-installed. I tried in vain to help them. Oh well.
Told my mum about my free trade coffee not finding dilemma, cos I thought she bought some before. And she did - but it was from the actual Oxfam shop in the city. So I guess I'll just have to try and remember to keep looking out for it. But, I guess this is the easiest challenge, and I can't even do that. Not a good sign, I say.

Went to the new house to drop off mail, and was gonna take The Sopranos season 1 and Monty Python's Holy Grail to watch them - but I must've put them down somewhere, cos I certainly didn't take them to the car. *sigh*

Starting to rip all my CDs again. Up to 'Any Given Day'. So thats only about another 200 to go, or so. Resolved, on V's advice, to just go back to 192 kbps, cos apparently thats the best the ipod can do, anyway.

Hard to imagine those people are like doing the stuff in HK right now. Damn.....I really have to go overseas soon.......or at least interstate. One of these days I should just use one of my long weekends to drive to the border and go across - just so I can say I did it. Once.

Obla-di, obla-dah...... - The Beatles

Woke up in the middle of the night (or so), cos my ear was really hurting. Turned over and went back to sleep almost instantly.

Woke up with the alarm, though didn't really realise. Got a lift to FCC with Katty, though that wasn't the plan. Wore my black planetshakers shirt, cos it hadn't really been worn to its full potential. Kept my band on, cos it still looks in pristine condition. My foot hasn't improved at all.

Worship was really, really good. Especially cos they sang the Delirious? version of Majesty (Here I Am), and it made me look forward to the concert more. But the rest of it was great, too - even though we arrived a little late.
Uncle Paul delivered the sermon, and it seemed he was practicing what he was preaching - about annointing. One of the biggest responses to an alter call in a while.

Had lots of salary cheques to write, cos I hadn't had time during the 4 days previous. Then, the CMC went to Foo-Wah for lunch before the meeting. Got home about 2.

Did my washing, checked my large amounts of junk mail, paid my new years bible school fees, went through more songs, checked out some new site - www.takethechallenge.org.au - which was promoted by planetshakers - sort of a Christian thingy based on the Make Poverty History thing. Challenge number 1 was to buy free trade coffee (whoa! tough, man) - it said the Broadway Dewsons sells it, but not that I could see. Bah! They lied to me.

Watched a bit of 'Out of Sight', but J Lo put me right off, and I stopped about 9:30 - I was also really tired.

So I've set my alarm for 6.........

John 11:39 - "...by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days"

Woke up about 6:15. Slept pretty OK, since I was, like, really tired. Left at the usual time (7:45), but since it was a Saturday and there was no rush hour, got to Maccas about 8:15. I was pretty hungry, and the hotcakes from The Tishbite yesterday were cool, so I got them - even though its like $3.50. While eating breakfast, I tried a Chris Hill impersonation - since having the cold shower this morning made me go "oooohhhhh", which kinda sounded like what he does. So I used the analogy of a "cold shower anointing". I think it came off pretty well.
I was still feeling tired, so got a latte, too. Even though it was $2.80, contrary to what FD says it was actually pretty good.

Got to Challenge Stadium around 9:05. Got ushered to the right (again) and ended up finding seats in the green area at the extreme front right (S9). I think we were in two groups at the start, but then conglomerated. Some of the youth went down to the mosh pit, which left me with like 3 seats of room - coolness!
Had another moment. During worship, Sam Evans changed the words from:
"I will sing forever.....
Jesus I love You
Jesus I looooove You"
to:
"He will sing forever.....
Jesus He loves me
Jesus He looooves me"
And then they sang a bit of that Sunday School song:
"Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so...........etc"
It was really powerful. Cos even though I know it and experience it a lot, somehow singing it over a few times just opened up a deeper realisation of how great His love is. Made me get all teary so I couldn't sing it the last few times.

The speaker was Matt Fielder, who started off with his own Chris Hill impersonation. Luckily (as he said) Chris Hill wasn't there, but Reggie found it pretty amusing (I think in the 'you are so lame' kinda way).
His message, from John 11:1-6, 11-15, 38-44 (about Jesus raising Lazarus) was entitled '4 bumps in the journey' - about hindrances to our spiritual walk in general.
The first, from verses 7-8 was fear (False Expectations Appearing Real) - ie, what if God does nothing? It included the most memorable part of his sermon, a brilliant description of what you would do if a you saw a huntsman on the bonnet. How you speed up but it clings on, then it moves to the windscreen and you try and knock it with the windscreen wipers, but it stays in the middle swaying out of the way, then it climbs on the roof where you can't see it, so you have to stop, then quietly undo the seatbelt then countdown before racing out of the car, then feeling spiders on you all day so that people think you're crazy. Anyway, you had to be there.
The second bump was negativity from verse 16, including criticism and cynicism.
The third was doubt from verses 21-25. He noted that doubt was a part of all (or most) bible heroes' life - including Moses, even though he was being spoken to by a burning tree, and assumed with Noah, since he was building a boat in the desert for 120 years. Even including JC, where he prayed twice for the blind man in Mark 8.
The last point was stink, from verse 39 - meaning general problems that seem to disrupt your quest for a miracle. He made the point that there was a smell of the grave, but it was right before the miracle occurred. He thus concluded that you should rejoice when you see little problems in your situation, because it means you've got the devil worried and that the breakthrough will happen soon.
He concluded by suggesting that God wasn't answering some prayers because, believe it or not, we are asking too little. As with Lazarus, it wasn't healing but raising from the dead, so maybe its not just parents but family, or community, or state, or nation?

Stayed inside during the break. Reggie came on again. He did his usual repoitraire, but this time added one go of 'Gimmie a J' - that was cool! Yeah!
His message was entitled 'Save the Day', from Luke 2:1-7, but also including Revelation 21:4. It was essentially a kinda outreach message - that JC was born in a rather nasty way so he could easily reach all of us broken people. He then told a different version of his testimony - I already knew he was adopted, but he told of the actual moment when he was told he was. The 'save the day' was what his mother told him on her deathbed - to not sit around waiting for her, but to go out and continue with the rallys he was doing.
And then I had another moment - maybe not the most obvious, but certainly the strangest. Like last year, Reggie was using this message as a springboard to encourage people to sponsor children. And I knew that, cos well before he finished he called the worship team up, but the World Vision people went instead and he goes 'nah, y'all, I'll call for you later'. So I knew they were gonna come, and I knew I was already sponsoring a child (from PS last year), and I knew there was nothing calling me to sponsor another one. So then, we he made the call, all of a sudden I got this thing which goes 'y'know, I have too much money'. Now, I don't have too much money, but since my rent is gonna be about half what it was, I will have over the rest of the year. So, that was it. I went down and got another child. I was hoping for a boy in Africa, since I have one in Indonesia already, but I realised that I wouldn't have any choice, really. But I got a boy from Kenya, so that worked out pretty well.

Went back to FCC, then. Had to drop of my namesake (female version) there because she had started feeling unwell almost right at the start, and had been sitting with her friends in the car. We then went across the road and wound up at the Snaak place. I had a dorsai (??) on the recommendation of Ps Melvin, and also a Coke and a curry puff. It wasn't much, but it was about 3 by then, and we would be having dinner in two hours. I was planning to have the big sushi at Southlands.

I think the aim was to sleep - thats what Ps Neil Smith had suggested just before we left. But, even though I could've used some sleep, the ache that the hard floor was gonna cause me far outweighed that desire. So, instead, I sat around while people played Texas Hold'em. It was kinda funny, cos we were betting with Monopoly money, so whenever you went broke you just grabbed some more from the pile. Then it was cleaning up time - took a while. I almost lost my PS bag, but found it after going through like 50 of them. OK, maybe 10. Or less. But still......
I was then forced to share my Chris Hill impersonation with the rest of the group. I think most of the youth seemed to think it was cool - they must be very easily amused. Just wait until Uni makes them cold, boring and cynical. Yeah......


And then, we didn't go to Southlands, but went to Taurus instead. But I wanted my sushi, so went and bought takeaway from Yuki. It was $8.50 for ten pieces, which I thought was actually quite OK. Foolishly bought soy sauce for 20 cents when it was included, anyway. I bought Coke Zero as well, just for something different.
I then threw the bag in the bin outside Taurus. I then couldn't find the car keys, and realised they were still in the bag, so had to get it out of the bin. Oh, dear......

We left past 6. There was a crowd in Subiaco, which I found out later was watching the Western Force practice rugby training game. Just after, there was a booze bus (except there was no bus) to catch the drunken rugby people. It slowed us down a lot, but we got through without being tested. Yay!
On the way, the youth in the bus all prayed for my namesake (female version) that she wouldn't be sick again. Ah, the lessons we can learn from children...... ;-)

Got there about 6:40. Once again, our group got seperated - but it didn't matter, cos we went in by the left door and were thus ushered left. I was just about to get to the cement seats at N7 when everyone charged into me (quite literally) from the other direction, cos the middle section had just opened up. We thus got almost exactly the same place as Friday night - but I was on the other end of the row, 1 seat further back.
I had my final moment during worship. Since the previous night I had been shouting/screaming as loud as I could, I realised that I wasn't going to get any 'further' doing it that way. So, right from the start, I knew that I should kneel. But I really couldn't bring myself to do it. I had also felt it quite strongly on the first night, but resisted then. However, they sang that 'Your glory' song again, and just before they got to the chorus the second time, it was like 'now! now! now! do it!'. So I did. And I stayed down until pretty much the last run through of the chorus.

The speaker was Russell Evans. His message, from Matthew 18:18-20, but using a lot from the apple story in Genesis 3 was about breaking out of the boxes in our lives. To illustrate his point, he had lots of boxes on the stage and destroyed each one with a baseball bat - insecurity, disunity, mediocrity, blame, anger, etc....
A fitting way to finish, I think. But, even though my body was hurting in all sorts of places by this time, mainly my foot and my chest and my voice and my brain wasn't staying awake - I was devasted that we had come to the end. And now theres another year until its on again.

Got back to FCC around 11. Got a ride home with Katty - I left V's car there to take it home on Sunday afternoon. We also gave Car a rid back from B's house. Went pretty much straight to bed - it was a little after midnight.

I hope V's enjoying HK, cos I know how much he would've enjoyed this....... a lot better than last year, but in a less emotional and more sustaining kind of way. I think that the camp aspect was probably the reason for that.
Till next January, then?

Jeremiah 1:10 - "Pluck up! Break down! Destroy!"

Woke up - or, more to the point, got woken up - at 6:45. Woke up a few times during the night, but, somehow, got back to sleep straight away.

Left at about 7:45 again. Got to Maccas at about 8:40. I didn't order anything, but finished of The Tishbite's hotcakes, and Leo's orange juice. Got to Challenge Stadium about 9:15 - the doors were already open. We had to split the group up - some of us got seats at the far right of the left side in the green, the others had to sit in the same vertical spot but up in the cement.

Chris Hill was first off. Apart from his usual 'my G-O-D is B-I-G', he also, at the end (I think) used that song (by some 80's band) but changed the lyrics as follows:
"Shout! Shout!
Let it all out
Jesus is He who we praise about
Come on
I'm talking to you
Come on"
Most people I talked to didn't realise it was like a pop song. It was pretty cool, but they only sang it about three times and that was it for the whole conference. Unlike that 'tribe called praise' bit, which they did a few more times.
His message was far more up my alley, this time. Very insightful stuff ("I don't have time to tell you about this...."). His main message was about the 'ark' that baby Moses was placed in among the reeds, (Exodus 2:1-6) and that God can use the 'mud' of this world to protect from far greater dangers in the river. But before that he went through the stuff that he didn't have time to go through - 3 other arks in the bible.
The ark of the tabernacle - had three layers (gold, wood, gold), representing the Trinity, but only 2 natures (gold and wood) representing JC as God and man.
Inside was the rod that budded signifying that Aaron was high priest, representing JC as our high priest - the manna pot containing the bread that fell in the desert, represeting JC as the bread of life - and the ten commandments of the law, representing JC as the fulfillment of such.
The ark that Noah built - representing the Church, which can keep us secure from the storms of life.
The ark of Joseph - who wanted his bones taken from Egypt to the promised land, representing the resurrection from the dead at the end of time.
He concluded with the title of his sermon (as per usual) 'a perfect praise', which was the cry that Moses made when Pharoah's daughter opened the 'ark' (basket). He made his point by saying that the first cry of his son sounded to him very much like 'Jesus', and that the Name is a perfect praise.

During the break, certain people leave and take their stuff without saving seats. Such happened this time, so the people in the cement moved down. I had to go out and buy stuff for V - he wanted a shirt and the CD. He wanted a medium, which I think will be too big, cos its pretty much a good size for me - but I didn't want to risk going against his wishes. Tried to confirm if he wanted the gold or white print, but I'm guessing hes out of range over there. Got the white with gold shirt for myself at the same time.

Reggie was on after the break. Did more of his stuff at the start. The bulk of his message was:
girls: "carpe diem"
boys: "sieze the day"
all: "a'ight?" (to make it more cool)
Based of Jeremiah 1:4-10. I believe the 'sieze the day' is because of 'this day' in verse 10. There was a little bit of 'pluck up (one hand), break down (two fists), destroy (stomping)', from the end of verse 10.
He made four points:
1) verse 5 - existence preceeds conception
2) verse 5 - purpose preceeds birth
3) believing preceeds seeing
4) assignment preceeds awareness
The last point was made in reference to the call of Moses - that he killed the Egyptian before he was called.
Reggie concluded (as he usually does - it makes my eyes water) with, since yesterday we had 'killed the dogs' now was time to 'drag the dead, bloodied, mangy mut to the kerb'. This was done by either taking an object of temptation (if one had it on one) or, if not, writing it on paper, and chucking it on the stage. Needless to say, there was a large amount of paper there. Inc. one by me (I'm amazed I was able to throw it that far). On the way back (I think it was this time), I saw the Australian flag near the narrows there, and 'save Australia' came to my mind almost subconciously. Cool, cos thats what I wanted to happen.

We went back to FCC after that, and went straight over the road to Taurus. I ate beef kway teow - Val almost made me eat some beef brisket thing, cos she told the waitress thats what I wanted. Apparently that place was supposed to closed due to renovations - I couldn't really pick anything different.

After we got back, went straight away with Val and Katty to nearby pharmacy to by Dencorub for my foot. It made it feel pretty heaty, but I'm not sure how effective it was at stopping the pain.
We did group sharing after that. Most people were talking about (since they're high school people) about trying to get Reggie Dabbs to come (since he said he was gonna be visiting 40 schools around Australia in October or thereabouts, and also doing two big meetings (one north, one south) on November 3 and 4.
Then we had some corporate sharing. A few people mentioned stuff about healing, etc, cos that was what Chris Hill had done during the first session.

It was then time to go - went the Southlands again. I ended up eating sushi, which was great, but really not hungry due to the lunch thing.

Got to Challenge again about 6:30. Not many people there, so we got quite a good spot. However, once we got in, we were again ushered to the right. Stayed there for a while, then, somehow (its a mystery to me) some people got round to the left. So we all went over there, thinking we had seats - we did, but they were in cement again. Then, some of the younger youth went back around the top, and the next second everyone was rushing for the green seats in the middle which just opened up. So we got about 2.5 rows, which pretty much fit everybody, far as I could tell, left of centre. W11, I think.

The speaker was Chris Hill. But before that, I had another moment. Sang 'your glory' as the 2nd worship song, and it got to the stage where I could no longer sing, and could hear myself shouting it - especially the 'show me Your glory' bit. They then quieted the music a bit, and what I was thinking was 'Jesus, don't pass me by'. So what song did they sing next? Yeah! Though the chorus and bridge only. I was shouting all of that, too. And for pretty much the first time, I could hear myself, and hear my voice giving out, and knowing that it probably wasn't a pleasant thing to listen to (there was a bit of groaning and heavy breathing, too), and I didn't care. It was incredible.
So, Chris Hill's message was about 'unusual heroes' - Sampson, from Judges 14:5-6 & 15:11-15. Chris Hill imagines 'regular' Sampson as a Steve Erkel, who jumps into the 'phone booth' of God's annointing to become 'superman' Sampson. And one of the main triggers was people (things) making loud noises - the lion and the Philistines.
He made a couple of important side points, noting that 'the tribe called praise' came up as an enemy of Sampson. However, Sampson didn't use his annointing to fight his (so-called) allies.

Saw Chong outside (as in 'Chong's John' Chong). Incidentally, I forgot to ask him about John.

Got back about 11 again. I went pretty much straight to bed (as did The Tishbite), even though the lights were still on. I think I woke up once or twice, but I was feeling pretty tired by this stage...

Romans 13:11 - "Wake up!"

Woke up about 5:30. I guess. Cos I was cold. Had to get up about 6:15 cos I needed to go to the bathroom. Had a rather cold shower.

Left about 7:45. Went to Maccas - got there a little before 8:30. I wasn't that hungry, so just got the orange juice from Leo's big breakfast thing (it was like $1.50 cheaper). Didn't pay him back for a while, though. I bet he missed that 80c.

Got to Challenge Stadium a few minutes past 9. There was a long, long line of cars on Underwood Av. We just passed the gate when they opened it.

Went pretty much straight to the green chairs in the middle slightly on the right. Got one row pretty much straight across the three sections.

The first speaker was Sam Evans. She spoke about 'crossing over' - from Mark 4:35-40. Her point was to 'get in (or stay in) the boat' even through the storms. I went for the 'alter call' (there was way too many people to get close), but couldn't overcome the fear, I guess. However, I think that was the most important moment for me of the whole conference, cos it at least highlighted the problem, if not the solution.

I stayed inside during the break, so had to guard 20 seats or so. Chris Hill was on next. It was a very inspiring message, but, as usual, people were way too overenthusiastic to really draw much substance from it. His message was from Judges 1:1-6, with a bit of Revelation 19:11-16 thrown in. It was all about Judah (praise) joining with Simeon (heard, loud, vocal) to defeat Adoni-Bezek (lord of lightening ie Satan) by cutting off his thumbs (so he still has a weapon, but can't use it) and his big toes (so he is present, but not powerful). From hence came the song 'we are a tribe called praise'. And he started each message with the 'pump your fist, pump your fist like this' and 'my G-O-D is B-I-G'.

It was then time for electives. Technically, there was supposed to be a break, but too many (inc myself) had signed up for Holy Spirit, so that had to be moved forward into the same room as High School, but an hour earlier. So we only got half an hour break. The rest stayed outside and had KFC.
I can't remember the speakers name - it was rather foreign sounding - I think his family was originall from Pakistan, or some such - he's the head of Planetshakers college. He was a bit hard to hear, but I think I got the gist of most of it. It was mainly about his personal experiences, though he did draw from John 14:16 and 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, 12. There was then a quite long ministry bit at the end - though he only prayed directly for certain people - including some of the youth, as my namesake+y testified later. The first time he'd been slain, apparently.
A particularly nice bit - before the speaker started, one of the support staff mentioned that the Challenge Stadium security staff had told him that, considering the size, we were like the most orderly group they'd ever seen. Yeah!

Went outside. There was a little KFC left over. Waited around till about 4 before everyone else came back out. Then went to Northbridge for 'dinner'. I went with Katty, Leo, Val and another or two to the Vietnamese place which we went to last Sunday. Had something different - it turned out to be chicken rice, much to my surprise. Discovered that Leo was the one who's going to Tabor, who Jean keeps talking about. I also had some strange drink - soursop, or something. Tasted quite a bit better than it sounds.

Left at just past 5:30, so got back around 6:15. Got in around 6:30. Got ushered to the extreme front left, in the green in front of the N9 sign. Half of the youth got in in front and got on the floor, but (the weird seating arrangement again) they wouldn't let us go down there. Managed to save seats for V, his youngest sister and his friend (John, but not THE Jon - not an FGA Jon. 'Chong's John' as me and Alison deduced later. Though we could be very wrong about that).

And then Reggie - ah....I'd been waiting. He did part of his reportaire (however you spell it) - including 'Australia's on fire' 'if you're down with my Jesus' 'everybody spin' and of course 'somebody get your praise on'. And then you keep sitting down, and he does it again.
Quite a short message, but powerful. From Romans 13:11-12. 'Now!' 'Wake up!' - thats part one. Part two - the soon-to-be-infamous 'kill the dogs'. Based on Revelation 12 and John 21:3-6. Essentially, getting rid of sin. He did it very well, by first calling all the leaders down the front and getting them to confess, and then getting them to go back as he asked other people to stand.

Got back again about 11. Went straight to V's house - got a lift with Val. He wasn't there, but that didn't matter cos I was borrowing his sister's car - or so I thought. Apparently, her car battery had been disconnected already. So I had to wait around for V to come back - and he had parked in a bad spot, had to drop 'Chong's John' back home and went out to eat, too. So I stayed around talking to Ali for an hour and a half or so. Drank a lot. Got a bandage for my foot. Left my PS bag outside - and I would've forgotten it, had it not been for the washing powder which was in V's car and I thought he might want back, so I went back to return it and remembered the bag. *sigh* - had a few more moments like that.

Got back to FCC around 1. The gate was locked - I foolishly thought everyone would be sleeping already, so sheepishly rang Ps Melvin - nope, everyone was up and gossiping. Actually, the guys were involved in some deep sharing. But I had to wash up and that, so I didn't want to barge in. Got to sleep about 2, I guess.

Judges 6:13 - "Where are the promises?"

I really am too tired to do this post justice, so I'm gonna cheat and split it up per day.

Dropped my car off about 8:30AM. Got a lift with Katty to FCC. Was there about an hour and a half before heading off to Challenge Stadium. I drove the Odyssey, with 6 passengers.

I had registered seperately, so I got my stuff, with a shirt and CD as well. Strangely, the sizes were too big, so I got like a medium - black, with a gold print.

Started playing the CD as we drove to Subiaco for lunch. I had KFC. By then it was about 1. Went to a small park down Broadway on the river. Stayed there about 2 hours - did some preliminary sharing stuff.

Drove back to FCC. Got some games on the way. I played a few games of slightly adjusted snap rules, cos it was like a normal card deck and there weren't enough matches. But Katty was just way to obsessed.

Went to Southlands for dinner. Actually, since a certain Val had forced me to sit in the car and play the CD for half an hour, the Odyssey battery went flat. So, before Southlands, had to get a lift with Ps M to WLs house and borrow her car. Well, her mum said we could. However, it was only an Accord (or something), so 2 of my people had to go elsewhere. On the advice of Ps M, at two dumplings of sticky rice.

Got to Challenge Stadium about 6:30. Waited about 15 minutes, then went in. Due to strange seating arrangements (which continued all week), had to sit in the cement section, about S7, just under the Australian flag. Saw V and his youngest sister come in a find a seat almost directly opposite us, in the cement at N7. There were a few problems with the words at the start, but it didn't bother me - hah!
The speaker was Mike Gugliemichi (or whatever) - the message was mainly about 'saving Australia' - 'holding on to the promise' given to the guy who held the first church service on Australian soil on 2 Feb 1788 (as I recall). There were two effective parts for me - firstly, he suggested praying from 6am on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. And secondly, there was a song at the end about 'save Australia', which put the national anthem in the middle - such that, as he said, whenever you hear the national anthem again, this is what you'll remember.
I noticed during the message that my foot was in pain - as it has been since. I blame the cement.

Got back to FCC about 11. However, had to get the Odyssey started and return the other car. Probably got to bed about 1.

Bart: "TV sucks!"

Homer: "I know you're upset right now so I'll pretend you didn't say that"

Worked 9-4. Man, it was good to leave!

Resolved that I have to send my car in tommorrow morning - so hopefully I can leave it there, cos it will be a day early....

Its now 10:30 and I haven't really packed anything - tho I'm not planning to take much. I think it'll be rather a case of 'ruffin' it', anyway...

Did the final stuff for December, finally. However, there lots of stuff to do by Sunday (ie, salaries), and I'm not gonna have time for it.

Read some more Kings - up till about chapter 20 now. Elijah is doing his thing.

Hmmm.....slow day. Watched a bit more Schindler's List. Did more music sorting blah. Got an invoice for Harvest West for next sem - my money is really depleting itself rapidly. So I know that they got the right address, at least. I guess that means results are still not out yet.

Also got my Delirious ticket - yay! Had to pay an extra $1.50 for postage - boo!
And so, a Simpsons quote:

Evil shop guy: "Here is your Krusty Doll"
Homer: "That's good!"
E: "But I must warn you - the doll is cursed"
H: "That's bad!"
E: "But you get a free tub of fro-gurt!"
H: "That's good!"
E: "The fro-gurt is also cursed"
H: "That's bad!"
E: "But it comes with topping"
H: "That's good!"
E: "The topping contains potassium benzoate"
H: "...."
E: "That's bad"

Note there will be no posts till at least Saturday, probably. And probably not then, either, cos I'll be too tired.

Mrs. Krabappel: "Bart, are you telling me that you read a book intended for preschoolers?"

Bart: "Well.....most of it"

Worked 8:45 - 4. Yes....got there very early, for some reason. Probably cos I had to post letters, and overcompensated for the delay.
Ate black forest cake for lunch, cos it was left over from some birthday, or something.
It was very got - and, apparently, tommorrow will be worse. Also, I saw that its gonna be about 35 on Friday - not great.
Just one more day to go...........for this week, anyway.

At home, started downloading my purchased songs from ninemsn, from way back when. Surprisingly, the list also included 'Bless my soul' by Powderfinger - since it used to be in their collection, but then got removed. Anyway, it didn't play, so.....

Started watching 'Schindler's List', cos its been a while. Have probably got about halfway through. I'm still picking up bits of dialogue, cos a lot of them are quite hard to understand, and speak very softly. I thought I picked up a good quote, but, when it came to write this, I'd forgotten.

There was a newish episode of The Simpsons on at 7:30 - I think they've moved both it and Futurama to Monday, now. Veronica Mars has gone AWOL - I ended seeing really only the first episode. There was also a new series 'Supernatural', from the makers of the X-Files, apparently, but it was way too obvious. Not planning on watching it again.

Saw a bit of tennis, hoping Serena would lose. But, I knew it was a vain hope, so I didn't watch much.

One day to go............

Finally booked my Delirious ticket. Also, rang Harvest West to check if the results were out, but, as what usually happens, they had to talk to someone else, and they never call me back. So, I'll have to ring again tommorrow. Cos, I am now almost positive that stuff is going to the wrong address. Even though I made the explicit point of personally handing in the form and pointing it out...........

One more day.........
I'm so not prepared.........I don't know what I'm gonna take - especially for sleeping. Cos thats a darn hard floor. Its probably gonna be the sorta thing where I'll need to take the next week off to recover........and then its Delirious........
butterflies, butterflies........

Ecclesiastes 9:2-3: "All things come alike to all:

One event happens to the righteous and the wicked;
To the good, the clean, and the unclean;
To him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice.
As is the good, so is the sinner;
He who takes an oath as he who fears an oath.
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all."

Woke up very tired.

Was supposed to be on lock-up duty, but Uncle M ended up doing it for me. Yay!

Went to Planetshakers-camp-thing meeting. Yeah....not gonna get much sleep.

It was decided (ex parte) that we go to Northbridge Chinese Restaurant for lunch. More than one (inc. myself) could just feel that something was gonna go wrong. I went with FD, and, although we left last, we got there first. And, of course, it was crowded. Nevertheless, we got a table for 10. Then V and his entourage showed up, and the table was nearly filled already, with lots of people still to come. It was dim sum - FD ordered one $3.60 plate, and ate that. Then we determined that there was no way to fit the people in there, so we just left.

Met outside - it was about 40 people. We went next door, some Vietnamese place, which was almost empty, so we fit on 3 big tables. Me and V ordered some fried chicken with egg noodle - but it didn't come for long, long time. A good choice, though. Ali wanted a 'big soup', but there was no big soup. So she asked for 2 small soups in a big bowl - didn't happen. Despite the waitress laughing a lot.
(so she was laughing at you, not with you)
It ended up being OK.

Tried to watch the end of 'American History X', but the disc went bad around 1:23, just when something important was going on. And I couldn't get past it. So, that was that. Found some music videos, including two Oasis ones. Great.

Rest of afternoon was spent doing computer stuff. I gave up on the harddrive, since my old one was almost full already, and just went ahead and formatted it.
I looked for an itunes recovery procedure, and after a long time found that it is a 1 time thing. Hence my quote - which means that I have tried doing things the right way, and it hasn't done me any good at all. So, at least for the songs I have bought off itunes, I am forced to 'permanently borrow' somebody elses. Mainly the music videos - if it is at all possible.
Plus, as much as possible, I shall boycott the itunes music store. I shall only buy stuff from there after confirming it is not on the Bigpond one.
As far as I'm concerned, Apple has made the list.

Went out to a house in Glen Iris for dinner - a rather big group. Had satay - which is always nice. V, being his usual self, was originally talking about trying to run across a pool, which was loosely covered with tarpaulin stuff. But, of course, he didn't go through with it. I should've said for him to go across sideways - that might've worked.
Played some foosball after that. I lost all four games - once solo vs. V, once with V vs. some Uncles and twice with V vs. Tk & EM, who were crazy, in terms of violently so.
Played a bit of Big 2 after that. I ended up winning twice, but I don't think anyone was really caring - it was just to pass the time, kinda thing.

I am now feeling almost sure that Harvest West has kept my old address - I shall endeavour to ring up tommorrow and check. Plus my Delirious ticket - but they've probably sold out by now.
Only two days of work, but it will feel like an eternity, I'm sure. I think I'll just go on with some other stuff, even though it may not be as time efficient in the end. But its better than just sitting there doing nothing......

Clint Eastwood (singing): "Gonna paint that wagon, gonna paint it good. We aint braggin', we're gonna coat that wood"

Lee Marvin (singing): "Gonna paint that wagon, gonna paint it fine. Gonna use an oil based paint, cos the wood is pine"

A song, from The Simpsons, courtesy of V's ipod, which I borrowed from last night to take the songs off as a bit of temporal relief while I am in harddrive limbo.

Spent a lot of the day sorting out all the song stuff, cos the ipod has a funny way of naming them, and puts them in weird folders.

Woke up pretty relatively late - around 10 or so. Got my soundcard working by just jiggling it around a bit. However, it seems like all my Creative tools - ie, the bit where it tests the surround sound speakers, etc. has kinda, like, vanished. Hopefully, I still have the CD. But I don't think I do. So I really should be just downloading it again. Since all my downloaded installation files that I had also went the way of the new harddrive dislocation thingy.

Downloaded a proper driver installation thing for the new harddrive, which the long discussion with V concluded with - but it still wants to format it. Maybe if I had originally used the software things would've been different - but I doubt it.

Watched to almost the end of 'Sin City', which I had started watching yesterday. It sure is a long show. By then it was 1'oclock (and I was drying my clothes), and Katty and Shar were going for lunch, so I went to.

Went to Hungry Jacks down Claremont way. Used a voucher, but it was still like $8 - probably due to the onion rings and thickshake.
Then went to Cottesloe Woolworths (a first for me) to buy my groceries. It took me all of 5 seconds, but I had to sit around for about half an hour while other people did goodness knows what. Then had coffee at some local place with a pretty clever name - but I forgot it (it wasn't that clever). It was actually quite nice.
Tried to find Pri D'amour (or however you spell it), but, as I suspected, it wasn't marked on the map. So only knowing somewhere in Mosman Park is probably not that helpful. Except that I guess it would have some sort of river view.

Finished watching 'Sin City' after The Simpsons. Pretty good show. Very violent, yes, but most of it you can't really make out cos of the black and white and that. I'm still not a big fan of the Clive Owen segment - but thats probably cos I don't think much of Clive Owen. And I'm annoyed that Benicio Del Toro is the bad guy.

Was gonna continue watching 'American History X', but discovered 'Twins' was on. Actually, I only saw a bit of it, cos 'Braveheart' was on another channel. But its way too long - started at 8:30 and finished after 12.

It seems that the elaborately worked out car fetching plan from Ali has encountered a hiccup - being the whole 'Planetshakers as a 13:30 event' thingy. Ai.....
The best laid plans of mice and men, as they say........

....pretty stupid saying, really.

Gandalf: "Breathe the free air again, my friend"

Was driving to work today, and ended up behind a super-smokey car. Each time it had to stop at lights, or something, then start again, a giant plume of white smoke buffetted towards me. And, of course, it stank like nothing. Well, actually, it stunk a lot like something. Something stinky.
Anyway, so I had to change my air circulatorary-thing from outside to inside. Finally, however, the car turned off, so I was able to breathe outside air again. Hence, the quote.

Worked 9-3:30. Left cos I was concerned that nobody had returned the DVDs which were due back yesterday. Then, it turns out, somebody did. So, great.

Went to shop to pick up my computer. Had to pay $44, but they didn't do nothing. Except make it so my soundcard is not working. I'm hoping its just a small thingy, but I'm beginning to think that it won't be.

Continued ripping CDs. Have resolved to go back to about 192kbps, cos otherwise my ipod will have just too few. Also, I copied the songs currently on the ipod to my harddrive. I have, however, not completely given up on the old stuff just yet. Had a fruitful conversation with V about it tonight. Actually, it wasn't so much fruitful as it was long. And pointless. But, I'm sure V found it funny. Anyway, the point is I still feel assured, and, indeed, more assured, that the data can be got at - it just needs the right person. Unfortunately, how can I find this right person?

Went to 'a gathering' at B's house at around 7 or so. For some kinda 'bonding' thing. Didn't do much of that. However, I did have some intersting conversations with V, Ali and Eli. Plus, I talked to some guy who I didn't remember seeing before but has apparently been around for ages. We discussed the strangeness of corrosive free wiring, which was also 'ruggedized'. I wondered if 'ruggedized' was a word. I have my doubts.
Also watched some strange stand-up comedian guy. He was pretty funny, I guess, but most of the lafs were rather cheap.

Left rather very late, and I borrowed V's ipod to copy his songs, which I wanted to do now lest something happen later, so now its like 1:30.
And I did my washing, but now I'll have to rinse it again tommorrow morning, cos its been sitting there for like 6 hours, getting all crinkly.
All my new stuff, too.

Oi, veh!

Lisa: "I have decided to keep a journal to document the process of dumbening."

Computer was away for 'fixing', so had to write down the stuff instead. On paper! What is this world coming to?
At least I kinda got to use the planner thingy what I got for Christmas.

Worked 9-4. Was thoroughly enjoyable, as always. If not, more so.

Saw some funny people in their cars on the way back. Oh, those drivers do provide me with much amusement. There was this person at the Graham Farmer Freeway onramp from Loftus street heading south, which is a really long intersection, but every time the lights even hinted at beginning to change, they'd inch forward until they were almost completely over the line. Plus, they had their winderscreen wipers on maximum speed, even though it was doing little more than spitting. Guess they were in a hurry, or something.

Took just my hardrive in first. I didn't know if the shop was even open, so I took a letter to post so I wouldn't just like have to walk around in a circle and do nothing if it was shut. They told me I needed 'the whole system'. Thus, I ended up bringing my monitor, keyboard and mouse along for the ride, but they just stayed in the car.

Got a phone call from techie guy about 8:30. Was told they did nothing. So, great!

Watched 'The Emporer's New Groove', cos its such a great film. And hearing the voices of David Spade and that Nina person from 'Racing Stripes' made me want to watch it again. Ah. Great.

Watched 'Garfield' after that. Not a good film. My main complaint was with Jon - hes supposed to be a much bigger loser. And older. And Odie didn't look stupid enough. And Garfield wasn't lazy or mean enough.

Started watching 'American History X', because it was there. I thought I kinda liked it last time, but now it seems a little lame - because the whole 'being brainwashed by that old guy' thing is just a little too obvious. Its not the kiddies fault - they don't know any better! Well....boo hoo. Plus, I saw one shot of Edward Norton's swashticka (however you spell it) which looked very much like a sticker. Swash-sticker! Hah!

Watched 'Ghost in the Shell'. Another great episode - focusing almost entirely on the chief, which was a welcome change. And he proved himself, again, flawlessly genius. Such a great show. Yay!

Read some more Kings. Up to about chapter 17 now. Were racing through the kings, but now up to the whole Ahab, Jezabel, Elijah thing, which takes up a significant quantity of the book.

Two more working days to go till Planetshakers.........
oh, baby!

Lisa: "I feel like I'm gonna die, Bart!"

Bart: "We're all gonna die, Lise."
Lisa: "I meant soon!"
Bart: "So did I!"

Woke up about 8:45, or so. Had my breakfast while watching 'Kundun'. However, it went screwy at the end so I stopped at about 10:30, and continued reading 'The Pilgim's Regress'. I'm beginning to understand it less and less, but I still think he's heading somewhere. Like 'Surprised By Joy', which was quite slow up until the actual salvation bit. The chapter was called 'Checkmate' - it was brilliant.

FD then started watching some weird airy-fairy anime, so I decided I couldn't put off my clothes shopping any longer. Ended up buying two T-shirts, 1 polo and 1 pair of shorts. I resolved to try some denim, but the only pair I kinda liked (a nice deep dark blue colour, without that stone-wash stuff) was too long. I was more looking for white or cream coloured shorts, and they didn't have any. So I may try somewhere else later.

Went to the new house - did some more dishes and arranged my new pillow in its cover - it fit very easily. Felt pretty good, too. Got some more mail, but it was nothing interesting. Thus, the birthday cards must've gone to the wrong address, and I'm thinking my results have, too.

Continued ripping more CDs. Got up to 'Enigma', and then my new hard drive decided to get undetected, so now it wants to be formatted before it will be recognised again. And thats with like 20GBs of stuff on it. I will try and take it to the computer shop tommorrow to see if it can be salvaged. Most of the stuff is songs which I can reclaim, but theres also a lot of itunes ones, which I don't think can be gotten again. Continued ripping more CDs onto my (now empty) D:. However, I'm ripping at 320kbps, so its only gonna hold about half my CDs.

Watched the rest of 'Kundun', but had to skip 1 little bit. It was quite good - very surprising for a Martin Scorsese film. I think the ending bit was getting a little bit too philosophical, or something.

Watched 'House of Wax' while eating dinner. Actually, fast forwarded most of it. It was a bad copy of a bad film. 'Nuff said.

Watched 'Racing Stripes' after that. Was told it was not good by some person - they were, like, so wrong! Mainly enjoyed it, though, cos of the minor characters - Whoopi Goldberg as the goat, Dustin Hoffman as the pony, David Spade as one fly, Joe Pantoliano as the pelican. Also had Nina from Just Shoot Me as the evil human character - but she didn't have a huge role. Malcolm's Frankie Munitz and Mandy Moore were the lead animals - but, as usual, they weren't that impressive. Predictable story but inspired dialogue - especially from David Spade and Joe Pantoliano.

Working tommorrow - great! If I was V, I know what I'd say now. About me, that is. Well....he probably has to work too...........

Chorus: "Its the first annual Montgomery Burns award for outstanding achievement in the field of excellence!"

Woke up about 10:15. Was very shocked about the lateness of the hour.

Didn't have breakfast, cos there was very little milk. FD was watching 'Only Love'. Watched a bit of that till he gave up and left. It wasn't a great show. I checked on Amazon - its only available on VHS and is listed as a TV movie.

Since FD had left, I watched my second birthday present - 'The Truman Show'. Such an ingenious show.... Unfortunately, only had trailers as special features. I was hoping they'd show how they did some of the effects and such. Oh well. Probably wouldn't have been that enlightening, anyway.

Did a lot more accounts stuff, and continued copying more CDs. That lasted till about 3 or so.

Then, watched some special features on 'Schindler's List', where they had like a documentary which was some actual survivors talking about the war. Was quite interesting to note that some names had been changed for the film, and some things that to me should've been in there were not. It was as if Steven Speilberg had deliberately put innaccuracies into the film.

Watched a few special features from 'Battle Royale'. The conversations of the child actors amongst themselves were interesting, but the director is a bit too full-on. In my opinion, making a movie like that, you'd want to be overly generous and nice to them so they don't get too freaked out or whatever. He was NOT like that.

Started watching a bit of 'Kundan' while having dinner. But then FD wanted to watch 'Ghost Whisperer' on TV, a series starring Jennifer Love Hewit. Saw about 5 minutes of it, and that was enough, thankyou.

My oldest bro in Guatemala was involved in a car accident because of the crazy driving of some guy he was getting a ride with. He had minor injuries, only, but complained about the whole process a great deal (its been 2 days now). Anyway, he just sent a picture of the car, so thought I put it here.

Homer: "Its like David vs Goliath. Only this time - David won!"

Lisa's brain: "I know; I heard it too. Here's some music."
(classical plays. Lisa smiles strangely)

Woke up about 8. Had my shower almost straight away. Ate breakfast without watching anything, cos there were boxes in the way of the TV from the table. Did my washing, cos I had practically no clothes left.

Watched more Seinfeld - just because I wanted to finish it off. Had about 3 episodes to go, so watched them all, plus the inside looks and deleted scenes. Ah, tis funny! Can't wait for season 7, now.
*sigh*

Watched 'Billy Bathgate' after that. Was another good mobster film. Not as good as Goodfellas, Casino or Donnie Brasco, but better than Scarface and Godfather part II. Interesting to see Dustin Hoffman, Bruce Willis and Nicole Kidman in a mobster show.

My dad came over at about 2, so went to Terrazza for coffee. Also got card with money from my parents.

Watched 'Hart's War' in the afternoon. Wasn't what I was expecting - mainly about a phoney trial in the middle of a German POW camp during WWII. And most of the phoney trial issues were about race. So it was, on the whole, confusing as to what the film was about, exactly. And the ending was just too touchy-feely type over-generalisation thing.

Watched a bit of news, cos there was a cyclone headed for Dampier (where I used to live). Unfortunately, none of the shots they showed were long enough or well defined spots. But it hasn't really hit yet, so maybe the footage tommorrow will be better.
Heard about a lady from Gosnells who won $6mil on Powerball. And the story made a big point of saying that she bought 3 lottery tickets a week, cos a psychic had told her about 20 years ago in England that she would come into a large sum of money. I mean, how accurate can you get? Maybe, though, if she saved the money from those lottery tickets, and all the other gambling, etc, that she would've bought, she might've been able to move out of her Homeswest home a long time before this. But, you can't go against your psychic, right? Except that she said it would happen, no matter what. Obviously, karma needs a helping hand......
*sigh*

Got a phone call from my mum - apparently, they managed to wipe part of c:\ when it shouldv'e been a:\. Not fixable over the phone (surprise, surprise).

Went to Fantastico for dinner (now, theres a place that don't live up to its name). Somehow, 12 other people showed up. Had chicken, which was small and not too tender and strangley flavoured. Also, they charge about $6 per bottle of water - that are none too big.

Back home, watched one of my birthday presents from the cell, chosen by me - 'Battle Royale'. Si, Katy and Shar watched it too - for the first time. Obviously, it is not for everyone's taste. I think by the end they appreciated its point of view, even though its a little over the top. Or maybe it was just relief laughter that it was over.

Now, once again, it is too late.

Marge: "You must be very proud of Homer coaching"

Grandpa Simpson: "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

Once again, I forgot to do the blog for yesterday.

After sleeping so late last night, woke up to my alarm very shockingly out of deep sleep at 7.

Church was rather short - we were all outside by 10:30. It was thus too early to go anywhere close. So, for some reason by which logic forgot, we went to Northbridge, to Hong Kong BBQ.

At home, finished watching 'The Hunt for Red October'. It is good, except that its supposed to be based on a true story, and most of it is incredibly implausible. But the actors are good, esp Shaun Connery and Sam Neil, and most of the others on the Russian sub. Alec Bauldwin isn't so good, but, you know....

Most of the late afternoon was a slow process of burning my CDs at 320kbps, and thus having to try and remove songs from 4 star rated that get onto the ipod. And doing a bit of accounts stuff. My computer was in a foul mood, and kept resetting itself cos of some Alanis Morrissette CD. Which was weird, cos in the end there was no problem. It was rather irritating.

Was planning to watch 'Traffic' on TV. But it turned out to be 'Traffic - The Miniseries' and I watched a little and it did not look good. So I watched a few more episodes of Sienfeld instead. Which was nice.

Finally got round to reading more of Kings, which is why I forgot to do this blog. Up to half way through chapter 8. So....

I also read some more of CS Lewis yesterday - got up to about the 3rd 'section'. Its interesting, but probably still a little too obvious. I expect it to get better, though, cos its still got a long way to go.

Homer: "Flanders is the worst coach this team has ever had."

Marge: "He's the ONLY coach this team has ever had....
And the season hasn't even started yet."
Homer: "Yeah, well....
He's wearing that hat like an idiot."
Marge: "Homer, its easy to criticise."
Homer: "Fun, too!"

Woke up about 8, which was good, cos I was going for breakfast at 9. Went to Van's on the Cottesloe foreshore, cos there was a cell member from long, long ago (Swan) who has taken a job in Sydney. She still looked exactly the same, though I guess thats hardly surprising.

Got back about 11. Watched 'In the Name of the Father', which I had mainly borrowed cos it had songs by U2. Turns out, it was actually only one song that I could recognise. It played right at the start. Interestingly, its another song thats NOT on the so-called 'Complete' U2 thing on itunes.
The rest of the film was quite good. Certainly shocking, since its supposed to be a true story, and apparently the police knew they were innocent but got them convicted for mass murder, anyway. England and Ireland, just like most other countries everywhere, just don't get along, it seems.

At 6:40 (approx.) left to go for crabbing. Happened to spot V's car on the way, so all of us went to the wrong place together. Then went to a different place recommended by a friend of Ali. The water was stinky and warm and rather deep, but our expedition was, on the whole, considerably more successful than I thought it would be. Despite most people spening most of the time in fear of being bitten, they are actually suggesting going again.
Twice, by accident, I caught two at once. Weird, huh?
There was a little bit of lightening towards the end. And it rained on the way back.

Got back to V's house about 10:30. Ate pizza and custard slice thingy. Other people ate crabs except for me and Ali, who just sat there away from the stink. Left there about 12:15, thus got home past 12:30. I went straight to sleep. Well, after the QT thing, of course.

"Tonight on 'Its the Mind' we discuss deja vu - that strange feeling you get that you've lived through something before. Didn't I just say that?"

A Monty Python quote, or, at least, a paraphrase of such. In reference to a certain shopping centre visit.

Woke up about 8:45. So, comparatively, a sleep in. Continued going through my songs till about 10, with my shower inbetween.

Had my breakfast while watching 'Intolerable Cruelty'. It was quite alright, but there wasn't nearly enough nasty stuff going on as the title would suggest. The best bit - George Clooney had to give a speech at NOMAN, which was an acronym for some organisation of divorce lawyers. And its slogan was '...let NOMAN put asunder...' which is the second part (in a sense) to God's comands about marriage in Genesis 1 (as I recall) - "what God has joined together let no man put asunder". Very clever, I thought, if not horribly cynical, as well as blasphemous.

I then continued with going through more songs. I also (finally) finished off the December accounts, and completed the BAS. It actually took quite a while.

Had lunch, while FD was watching the rather bad show 'While you were sleeping'. Continued watching it, anyway, cos there are bits that are funny. Like where they show the boy on the bike delivering papers when the path is icy, then he throws one too vigorously and falls off. Yeah. Fond memories.

In the middle of watching that show, Katy and Shar decided they wanted to go Carousel, so went along as well. Mainly to, like, get out of the house. Ended up buying another ironing board cover, as well as some coffee flavoured chocolates from Darell Lea (which weren't really that good - they kinda seemed old). Double checked to make sure there were no briefcases - there wasn't. Was gonna have a VVL, but the shop closed. So, had to make do with a Dome Mocha. It wasn't great.

Had couscous for dinner. I bought the instant stuff, so I didn't expect it to turn out very well, and it didn't. Was too dry, and didn't mix with the butter well, so didn't have much flavour.

Watched 'Kindergarten Cop' on TV. My mind is still not totally made up about that show, but they whole 'police story' part gets less feasible each time I watch. And the kids aren't really that cute. The ferret is, though.

There is now 12 days to go to PlanetShakers, and the signs are getting a lot harder to resist, even though it doesn't really feel like its 12 days away. Signs like driving down the Subiaco end of Hay Street and seeing those traffic lights there and knowing that Challenge Stadium is only another 10 minutes or so over the hill.
Remaining calm..........

Mugatu: "Martial arts.........good! Prime Minister of Malaysia.....bad!"

Told FD when offered an orange:
"Orange juice....good! Oranges....bad!"

Woke up very early again. Kept on keeping on with the going through music thing. Played some more AOEII - the Saradin campaign. Not very interesting, so far. I don't like this nomadic type ones.

FD was watching 'Cheaper by the Dozen' deleted scenes. Didn't look good. Ate breakfast - not good, these weetbix things. Why can't they bring back Crunchybix? *sigh*

Watched 'The Paper'. The opening list of actors showed a lot I liked, but, really, Michael Keaton was by far the dominant character, in nearly every scene. Still, it was quite an interesting show.

Watched 'Levity' after that. It was good - another Billy Bob Thornton show about guy released from gaol. But, again, nothing was really resolved in the end. I didn't really see him get 'redeemed' as the synopsis said he did.

Watched 'The Karate Kid II' in the afternoon. Quite boring - hardly any fighting. Mr Moragi (or whatever) was still the best character by far, but he was nowhere near as interesting or funny as the first one. Kid not quite as annoying, but that's not saying much.

Went to Carousel for late night shopping. Actually, went to Video Ezy first to return 13 and get 9 more.

Bought a pillow and protector from Myer. Searched the entire store, but found only 1 briefcase, and that was ugly, so didn't buy it. Finally decided on getting 'Battle Royale' and 'The Truman Show' for my birthday. Wanted 'The Sixth Sense', but they were out of stock. Had a VVL from Gloria Jean's - was OK only. Still better than all other coffees, but not as good as it was before. Ate Chicken Treat at the food court - wasn't very hungry.

Back home, watched 'Ghost in the Shell'. An episode concentrated solely on Bartou (or however you spell the name). I like it how they always know whats going on, but it seems as though they're totally clueless. Its very reasurring.
Yeah...

Finally read some more of Kings. Up to chapter 6.
Thus, I forgot to do this blog. So, now, there it is.

Super.

Seinfeld: "I think he regifted, then degifted, and now he's using an upstairs invite as a springboard to a Superbowl sex-romp"

Ahem.

Woke up about 7:45 again. Played AOEII firstoff, cos I just had to finish that Joan of Arc campaign, and finish it I did, at about 9:15.

After breakfast (ate Weetbix with multigrain - super), and, while watching the start of 'Death Becomes Her', I aquainted myself with the FCC deposit book - which involved recounting all the moeny and writing it all down. Took a while. Left for the bank at just before 11.

Theres a National just around the corner, so I only had to walk there. Seemed to take a while, but it wasn't really that long. Was then gonna go to the computer shop to buy my harddrive, but it was shut. Went to the jeweller and got my watch adjusted - cost $15. Then went back home - got there about 11:15.

Finished watching 'Death Becomes Her'. It was a quite enjoyable film, though a bit silly, as you would expect. It was strange to see Meryl Streep in such a comedic role - but she pulled it off pretty well. I tend to think Glen Close would've worked out better, but thats only maybe. I guess Meryl Streep fitted the stuck-up faded actress type more suitably.

Went then to the new house to drop off some stuff. Also, I had to do the inspection for the bond thingy. I also began washing a few dishes, but there wasn't much space to put them to dry, so I still have quite a few to do. Also, realised I have no cutlery, which kinda sucks.

Dropped off the inspection document at the real estate agent, then went back home again.

Continued watching Seinfeld till about 3. Almost finished disc 3 - up to the last episode. Not as good as the first two discs.

Went then to find another computer shop to buy my hardrive. Went to Officeworks, but they only had 1 external one. Were thus directed to 'somewhere in Osborne park'. Found Austin Computers, and bought a 120GB internal hardrive for $110, which I thought was pretty impressive. Then went and bought stuff for FD's 'magical night'.
*sigh*

Got the hardrive in and working without too many problems. Had to format it first, which took a rather long time. Then began copying my songs across (I have to copy, not move, lest the protected files suddenly stop working - it has happened before). I have copied all the ones of C. but most of them (about 14GBs) are on D, and hardly any of those have gone across yet.

While doing this, watched 'The Joy Luck Club'. I found it a very enjoyable film, but not very realistic, and a little too warm/fuzzy endings. It seemed that each daughter had had about 25+ years of problems cos of their mothers, and everything was resolved (for each) with one little speech. Nice for a movie, but life doesn't work like that. Still, the quaint little 'Chineserisms' were very cleverly done, and fun to watch. Also, it seemed to go on for hours, but apparently its only 139 (or so) minutes long. I think its because theres about 8 stories which are all quite similar. Didn't pick up much of the Mandarin - assuming it even was, which I am pretty sure it would have been.

It was then just about time for FD's 'magical night', so called cos he was having dinner outside in the alcove thing, which apparently looked magical. He thus invited people, being V, Ali and Shan. Katty and Shar were there in the house already. Of course.

It wasn't really very magical.

Cos there was guests, watched some of the Sienfeld episodes I'd seen already. But, hey, thats what I bought the DVD for. And, damn, they're still funny.

Lucy: "Is he safe?"

Mrs. Beaver: "Haven't you been listening to a word I've said? He's a lion....THE lion. Of course he's not safe! But he's good...."

Note that this is posting 104. Maybe I should have a '104th Posting Special' and review the memorable moments from the past 103 postings.....
...nah

Woke up again about 7:45. Was all ready by 9, ready to take my car in and get it fixed. And then, it turns out that it cannot be done till the 19th. The 19th! I'm sure my insurance company is saving a few dollars, but what about the inconvieniance to me?
(right in the middle of planetshakers, too)

Went to Koorong, cos its the 15% off sale. Bought 'The Misson Bell' by delirious? and 'The Weight of Glory' by CS Lewis. The former, cos their last CD was probably their best yet, and the new one sounds pretty good too, yeah? The latter, cos it was recommended by my lecturer. He also recommended 'A Grief Observed', but I couldn't find that. Actually, they are both essays, not novels, and the book 'The Weight of Glory' actually has about 5 others in it. Plus, I found a compendium which also contained said essay. But not 'A Grief Observed'. Tis strange.....

Went then to the butcher. Surprisingly, bought some meat and stuff. Though, I didn't.

Then went to Coles (shock! horror!), cos I wanted my budget steak. Bought a Picnic, cos my Cadbury Favourites thing from Christmas only had 1. And that disappeared without my rememberance. I think FD ate it, but he won't own up. Also bought some milk chocolate eggs with the candy shells. Had a scary thought that they must be for Easter, which, of course, isn't for about 3.5 months. And Christmas is barely a week old.

Went back home and left almost immediately for Osborne Park, with Katty and Shar. Went to KFC for lunch first. I had the, quote:

Large bacon and cheese zinger burger combo

However, they were out of Mountain Doo bottles, so I had to have Pepsi. Also, they tried to pass me off some small fries. I sorted that out though! Hah!
(the burger was pretty nice)

Went then to The Good Guys in Osborne Park. I bought an automatic coffee grinder, which apparently has like a built in timer, or something, to grind the beans either coarsely or finely all by itself. Am doubtful it will work very well.
Its ticket price was $39, but I paid less....cos I paid cash. Yay!

Went then to Kitchen Warehouse. Just wandered around. No-one bought nothing. FD just wanted to go, for some reason.

Then, to Ikea (pronounced 'ickier'). Once again, I bought nothing. Other people did, though. Super!

Took the freeway straight to Harbourtown. Had a VVL. Was....OK, only. Could've been better. A lot better. Sort of.

Spent the rest of the afternoon, till about 6:15, listening to my Delirious? CD and looking for more pictures of albumn covers to make the display in itunes pretty. Found a few more than I had.....but my computer was having a difficult time coping, speed wise. Hopefully, this harddrive thing will sort it out. It'd better!

Then played AOEII till 7. Started the last mission in Joan of Arc again, and did considerably better. I have annhilated two puny rivals, and established a more secure home base. But haven't really advanced very far.

Went for dinner at Ipoh Garden in Applecross. Took a while for the food to come, and when it did it was rather small. And not well mixed. But, it was food, which is nice.

Then met V and his youngest sister and some of their friends to watch 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' at Garbo. Except for some painfully drawn out 'action' scenes, I think it kept to the book pretty faithfully. The discussion between Aslan and Jadis was kept basically 'as is', thus the most glaring Christian allusion was preserved. And Aslan's march up to the stone table almost looked like something from 'The Passion of the Christ', which, I guess, was good. But, on the whole, the film wasn't very enjoyable. It seemed very dry and tired - by far the best acting was the voice of Liam Neeson as Aslan. The jokes, most of which were additional to the book, were quite 'Diz-nee'-fied and predictable and old. The scary bits were not scary enough, yet the battle scene was over the top violent, for a kiddie-type show.
I feel that if the chronciles continue, when they get to 'The Last Battle', there is not much chance of them capturing the feel of that book - in my opinion, the greatest in the series; both in terms of enjoyment, and also in Christian allegory.

Homer: "A good marriage is a lot like eating an orange...."

Willie: "If I wanted to see a man eating an orange, I'd have taken the orange eating class!"
Moleman: "The eating of an orange is a lot like a good marriage...."
Grandpa Simpson: "Just eat the damn orange!"

Apparently, someone I know got married today. So, yeah.

Woke up rather early, due to being woken up by someone/something. Stayed in bed for a while, though.

Had breakfast at around 9. Watched 'The Cup', a movie about some exiled Tibetan monks wanting to watch the 1998 world cup. Quite an enjoyable film, though it didn't really seem very realistic, even though it was apparently based on a true story. It was also very light - there didn't really seem to be much development of, really, anything.

Played some more AOEII, continuing with the Joan of Arc campaign. But I wasn't doing well, so I quit.

Read a tiny bit of the Pilgrim's Regress (which is its actual title). I feel, at present, it is a little too obvious in its allegorical connotations. But I have read a few pages only so far.

Watched some more Sienfeld. Finished disc 2 and watched about 2 episodes from disc 3 when I had to go to the airport to pick up B.

Stayed at his house till 10, watching some of his new DVD's.
Watched 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' first. Thought it was considerably better (ie, more faithful to the book) than the 1980s version. The oompa-loompa songs, for example, were the actual words from the book (I recognised the Veruca Salt lyrics). Of course, the bit with the father was added in. And seeing Willie Wonka as such an insecure type nutcase, instead of mere regular crazy person, was weird. Though, I guess, Johnny Depp has to try and show off some acting skills.

Went for lunch at about 4pm at KFC. Thus, when we went to a friend's house for dinner at 7:30, I wasn't very hungry.

Watched 'The Brothers Grimm', then. It was quite a good film, but the main reason I wanted to see it was cos of the fairytale aspect, and the tales were too twisted to be familar in any kind of meaningful way. In fact, it seems to me that the film was called 'Brothers Grimm' to try and con people like me into watching it, cos they expect its gonna be about Grimm Brothers stories. Which, really, it wasn't. At all.

So tommorrow, need to bank money, and send in my car, and do some food shopping, and get my watch adjusted. Possible............