Hey, it has been a while since I've updated daily. I did the once a day thing for a while and that was cool. But I have decided I want to take this blog in a different direction. Sorry Katie. I'm going to update when the mood takes me or when I feel I have something of particular value to share. So here goes:
I wrote this piece of urban poetry in a quiet time with God this week and I quite like it. I hope you do too. It is about my walk with God.
Retry
I don't want to live to repent
I want to live repenitently
Not religiously
No, I want to live relationally
Lord
I want to love outrageously
But not indiscriminately
I want to love people right
Lord
I want to live and love righteously
Because I don't want to live to regret
I live to be rebuked
I am resigned
Lord
I live redeemed
But I want to be refined
Lord
I am resolved
But I want to be revolved
And live renewed;
I want to live so that others can see you Lord
So that others can see and live to love you too
Amen
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
25.09.09
Today was Friday, and what a Friday it was.
I am a leader in my church youthgroup which we like to call ALTR. I'm going to explain that. We take our name from Romans 12:1-2. Which reads as follows:
"Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Those are some pretty heavy but cool verses that sometimes we read a little too flippantly I think. They call for some pretty radical changes to the way in which we live our lives, or at least, to the way in which I live mine. They call for us to offer ourselves up as "living sacrifices" and I'm inclined to take that literally. I mean not that we should get all flagellant or anything, but that we should dedicate our lives to God, and if necessary die for Him. We need to place our lives upon the altar. We're also called to "not conform" to "the pattern of this world", ergo, alter our lives. And that is a pretty scary and crazy thing to be asked to do really isn't it? When you think about it. God is calling us to make ourselves aliens. Distinguished by our love for Him Do you think so? How can we do this? By "renewing our minds" in His Word? Those two verses are sort of our mission as a youth group. Someone had the idea to play upon the words altar and alter (which are synonyms of words that are actually in the text...) to make ALTR. Upon reflection I wonder if perhaps we should have chosen easier ones :P Because those are flipping challenging verses. But I think that may be the point. Certainly something to be working towards as young adults.
Anyway, I needed to explain that so this next part would make sense. Tonight ALTR went rollerblading in Panmure. We had to come dressed as something beginning with A, L, T, or R because those are the letters of our name. But hardly anyone did. Zaneeee and Megan made an effort (road worker and... ladybug? respectively), and so did Rowena and Sky (characters from some movie) , and Rachael and Sarah (twins)... but no one else. Zac didn't even come. So I found myself in a situation in which I felt overdressed. I'd had the inspiration to come as an Australian Lawbreaker, Troublemaker and all-round Rascal (Ned Kelly). I used one of mum's knives to cut a visor into a bucket which I covered in tinfoil to make a distinctive helmet. I had a boomerang and a pistol and a bandana and excalibur too. And another hat. I wore yellow. I was like an action figure with extra accessories. My dream for ALTR is that one day we'll all be dressing up like Ned Kelly.
I am a leader in my church youthgroup which we like to call ALTR. I'm going to explain that. We take our name from Romans 12:1-2. Which reads as follows:
"Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."
Those are some pretty heavy but cool verses that sometimes we read a little too flippantly I think. They call for some pretty radical changes to the way in which we live our lives, or at least, to the way in which I live mine. They call for us to offer ourselves up as "living sacrifices" and I'm inclined to take that literally. I mean not that we should get all flagellant or anything, but that we should dedicate our lives to God, and if necessary die for Him. We need to place our lives upon the altar. We're also called to "not conform" to "the pattern of this world", ergo, alter our lives. And that is a pretty scary and crazy thing to be asked to do really isn't it? When you think about it. God is calling us to make ourselves aliens. Distinguished by our love for Him Do you think so? How can we do this? By "renewing our minds" in His Word? Those two verses are sort of our mission as a youth group. Someone had the idea to play upon the words altar and alter (which are synonyms of words that are actually in the text...) to make ALTR. Upon reflection I wonder if perhaps we should have chosen easier ones :P Because those are flipping challenging verses. But I think that may be the point. Certainly something to be working towards as young adults.
Anyway, I needed to explain that so this next part would make sense. Tonight ALTR went rollerblading in Panmure. We had to come dressed as something beginning with A, L, T, or R because those are the letters of our name. But hardly anyone did. Zaneeee and Megan made an effort (road worker and... ladybug? respectively), and so did Rowena and Sky (characters from some movie) , and Rachael and Sarah (twins)... but no one else. Zac didn't even come. So I found myself in a situation in which I felt overdressed. I'd had the inspiration to come as an Australian Lawbreaker, Troublemaker and all-round Rascal (Ned Kelly). I used one of mum's knives to cut a visor into a bucket which I covered in tinfoil to make a distinctive helmet. I had a boomerang and a pistol and a bandana and excalibur too. And another hat. I wore yellow. I was like an action figure with extra accessories. My dream for ALTR is that one day we'll all be dressing up like Ned Kelly.
24.09.09
I was wrong about yesterday. I thought it might have been a really bad day but in fact nothing happened. I thought it might spell the end of my blog... but here I am. Updating on time. As per usual.
23.09.09
I have a really bad feeling about today. I think today is the beginning of the end. I reckon that today will be a day in which I take a fall. Big. Time.
Forever.
It may take me almost a month to come to my senses. I hope that I do come to my senses because I really do enjoy blogging.
Forever.
It may take me almost a month to come to my senses. I hope that I do come to my senses because I really do enjoy blogging.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
22.09.09
In my English tutorial today I helped to perform A Midsummer Night's Dream in ten minutes and it went really well. I am not usually great shakes at acting because I am very self conscious in front of people; the more people watching me the more awkward and uncoordinated I become. I shake. But today was awesome because our play was supposed to be awkward and uncoordinated and I let adrenaline drive. I was Demetrius, Puck and Bottom, and sometimes those characters had to be on the stage at the same time so I was running around a lot, and then I had a gorilla mask pulled over me, and then I was Pyramus. I say that I did all these things, but really it was a group effort; Rebecca, Jess and Robert all pulled multiple roles as well and we worked well as a team with our numerous props. I felt real good afterwards.
It was also funny seeing what some of the other groups did. Kirsty's group did a hilarious adaptation of Twelfth Night, a short play about making that play. And Katie and Mila's group also did A Midsummer Night's Dream, although theirs was very very different and quite awesome. I think Katie was a little bit ashamed of it because she kept going on about how short it was and how it didn't cover the whole play yadda yadda yadda. And she hasn't even mentioned it on her blog! But it was hilarious to see Katie and Mila play Lysander and Demetrius and wooing that South African guy in the skirt. Katie doesn't need to be ashamed anymore because the moustache actually suited her.
And then tonight I went and saw UP which was fantastic. Really really feel good, I like it temporarily. Mark bought me some Pineapple Lumps to thank me for rushing to pick up the other Mark but we ended up swapping them for Malteezers... which it turns out neither of us really like. I wanted to share the treat Mark had bought me with Mark to thank him for buying it for me. When he gave them to me Mark said I could change them to Malteezers or something if I wanted, so I took that to mean that he would prefer Malteezers so I said: "sure, let's change them for Malteezers". He ended up paying several more dollars for them (they cost $6.80 at the cinema!) and it wasn't until we got into the cinema that we realised that we would have both preferred Pineapple Lumps. Haha. The moral of this story is that you should ALWAYS choose what you want and NEVER compromise or choose something else for the sake of someone else who you think wants something different, because you will both end up HATING it.
Friday, September 25, 2009
21.09.09
Those of you who haven't watched The Departed should make it your mission to do so. It is a classic film with some classic actors in it.
It has so much going for it:
1. Guns. There are lots of guns in The Departed and people use them to shoot each other. A lot. This may not be everybody's cup of tea but I enjoyed it. The film is very... tense. Because people are frequently in danger of dying in horribly blood ways the audience pays attention. Spoiler: lots of people die.
2. Mobster. It is a mobster-copster thriller by Martin Scorcese and is therefore excellent. It is set in the present day but for some reason it felt to me like it was set in the past, like a classic gangster film. It has a sort of out-of-time quality I guess. Released in 2006, and based upon the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, The Departed is a classic modern mobster flick.
3. Jack Nicholson. I really like this guy, particularly after watching him perform as Private Investigator Jake Gittes in Chinatown (great film), and in The Departed Jack is Jake's antithesis. The head of the Irish Mob, Frank Costello is the reason that nothing makes sense in Chinatown, he is the cancer, the source of pure evil which destroys reason. And he is excellent. I really enjoyed comparing and contrasting Jack's portrayal of Frank with his portrayal of Jake. Both are distinctly Nicholson performances and yet they are at opposite ends of the morality spectrum. Nicholson captures the vitality of the gangster period perfectly, probably because he was one when he was younger, or moved in those circles. He also has one of those voices that I could listen to all day. Like Morgan Freeman. Which is why I liked The Bucket List.
4. Other actors. The Departed has some other actors, some of which are not too bad. Here's a list: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew Damon, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg. Pretty good aye? Might sound a little bit homo because I've only listed male actors, but to be honest there are only like one or two female characters anyway. Vera Farmiga, who plays a police psychologist, is the only female actress of note and even if you recognise her, you probably won't know where from (she was in The Manchuraian Candidate and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). In any event, she sleeps with both DiCaprio AND Damon in the course of the film, so was clearly only included as eye candy, which is a little bit sad. That's why my list of good actors was all male. Upon second consideration, the film might be a little bit sexist, but then so are mobsters; you should still watch it.
I haven't included much of a plot synopsis because that would spoil things. But you should watch this trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klT94Krv2M0&feature=related
I'm sorry I don't know how to embed video yet so you're going to have to follow the link. Can someone help me out?
You should watch this following clip if you want proof of point 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lak0__k8icw&feature=related
It has so much going for it:
1. Guns. There are lots of guns in The Departed and people use them to shoot each other. A lot. This may not be everybody's cup of tea but I enjoyed it. The film is very... tense. Because people are frequently in danger of dying in horribly blood ways the audience pays attention. Spoiler: lots of people die.
2. Mobster. It is a mobster-copster thriller by Martin Scorcese and is therefore excellent. It is set in the present day but for some reason it felt to me like it was set in the past, like a classic gangster film. It has a sort of out-of-time quality I guess. Released in 2006, and based upon the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs, The Departed is a classic modern mobster flick.
3. Jack Nicholson. I really like this guy, particularly after watching him perform as Private Investigator Jake Gittes in Chinatown (great film), and in The Departed Jack is Jake's antithesis. The head of the Irish Mob, Frank Costello is the reason that nothing makes sense in Chinatown, he is the cancer, the source of pure evil which destroys reason. And he is excellent. I really enjoyed comparing and contrasting Jack's portrayal of Frank with his portrayal of Jake. Both are distinctly Nicholson performances and yet they are at opposite ends of the morality spectrum. Nicholson captures the vitality of the gangster period perfectly, probably because he was one when he was younger, or moved in those circles. He also has one of those voices that I could listen to all day. Like Morgan Freeman. Which is why I liked The Bucket List.
4. Other actors. The Departed has some other actors, some of which are not too bad. Here's a list: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew Damon, Alec Baldwin, Mark Wahlberg. Pretty good aye? Might sound a little bit homo because I've only listed male actors, but to be honest there are only like one or two female characters anyway. Vera Farmiga, who plays a police psychologist, is the only female actress of note and even if you recognise her, you probably won't know where from (she was in The Manchuraian Candidate and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas). In any event, she sleeps with both DiCaprio AND Damon in the course of the film, so was clearly only included as eye candy, which is a little bit sad. That's why my list of good actors was all male. Upon second consideration, the film might be a little bit sexist, but then so are mobsters; you should still watch it.
I haven't included much of a plot synopsis because that would spoil things. But you should watch this trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klT94Krv2M0&feature=related
I'm sorry I don't know how to embed video yet so you're going to have to follow the link. Can someone help me out?
You should watch this following clip if you want proof of point 1.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lak0__k8icw&feature=related
20.09.09
I had lunch with my friend Cameron today after church and it was cool to just hang out and eat butter chicken. I seldom eat "indian food" because it can be quite expensive, but I generally enjoy it when I do and today was no exception. There's just something about naan bread... Oh and I also bought a cool singlet today and did some weights with Josh. An awesome afternoon.
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