Wed, Nov 19, 2008

One day the strands will mend. All the torn seams and frayed ends will turn to one single thread.

As the end of the year quickly approaches I've been coming up with a draft list of New Years Resolutions. And I'm not talking about the "I'm gonna be a better person" type resos but moreso some really practical, fun and challenging resolutions. The first one I thought of, and something I've always wanted to do, is to write and record a song. I'm not at all sure how this will turn out, but I figure I'm more likely to have a go if I make it some sort of challenge. Another one is to learn how to drive a manual car... probably something I should have already achieved by now. One of the ideas I'm most excited about is writing down my dreams for a month - could turn out to be very interesting :P

The latest addition to the always-growing list is keeping a journal. Not a massive journal of deep and descriptive writings, but maybe like a smallish book with 365 pages, one for each day of the year, where I can either just write a few words, or thoughts or scribble a picture. You know - so it won't be hard to carry around, won't be a burden to keep but could be cool to look back on and digest on my thoughts.

If anyone has any suggestions for new years resolutions then let me know.

In the meantime, check out this brilliant new album (Razia's Shadow) by a band called Forgive Durden. It's basically a "musical" album (ie. has the type of music you'd find in a musical) which tells the story in two parts. The songs draw influences from musicals like Aladdin and Moulin Rouge, but the roots rest in an alternative style of punk rock I guess. As well as the music being really cool and catchy, the story is pretty neat also and has some cool character art to go along with it here. Oh and there's basically a guest singer on each track to play a different character. All in all, very cool. Takes a good hour to listen through the entire thing though. If you want to just check out a couple songs, maybe try: Life is Looking Up and The Exit. I've listened to the entire thing through a few times now and still can't pick my favourites. Let me know what you think!

Wed, Nov 05, 2008

My hands smell like apples because we have fruit soap in the bathroom.

While this is kind of old news, I realised I haven't actually blogged about it yet. Some of you may remember this plan of action from an earlier blog. Here's the conclusion in dot point form.

• So I got the name of the guy who I leant the book to from Mum.
• Step 1 was facebook stalking him... to no avail.
• Step 2 was phonebook stalking him... bingo!
• Had the number sitting there ready to call for a week or 2 until I finally found an afternoon to call up.
• The guy wasn't home, however his wife answered the phone - so I told her the full story.
• She instantly knew what I was talking about, and had grabbed the book in a matter of seconds! She said they'd drop it round when they next came past my house! Awesome!
• Then we chatted for a little while, I updated her on the status of the entire family (her and her husband knew us as kids I think, and were/are friends with Mum) and it just so happened that there was another common connection between us (we both knew a family that lived close by). Adelaide is just so small!

So that was that! A couple weeks later I arrived home one night to find my long lost Illusion book on my doorstep, wrapped in some nice packaging. After I hastily unwrapped it, I found inside the book, as well as a note and... another book!. The note basically said "thanks for lending me this book to me for such an extended period, here's a book that I found fantastic when I was your age, feel free to keep it for an extended period of time - forever!"

Just really cool! The book, The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass (The title being a paradody on the famous "The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole"), is absolutely fantastic. I (figuratively) can't put it down. You know how we always have those questions or thoughts about God and life that just seem too "stupid" or "silly" to mention? Well this book mentions them all and provides answers and provokes thoughts and just generally makes you laugh. There are so many situations covered in this fictional story of a Christian man living in Sussex that I can relate to. I highly recommend it!

And it's all just another example of God's big plan. He uses such interesting, unexpected and adventurous ways to bless me. Who would of thought that by lending a book to someone in my "terrible tantrum" years would have resulted in me being given a new encouraging book when I was 20? Not me. But God did :P

Eye See, Do You See? (the Illusion book) is just as awesome as I remember it to be - filled with many wonderous and mind-boggling illusions and puzzles. It was definitely worth reading through again. And I just love the fact that there's this big story behind such a simple, yet extremely cool, book. :D

If anyone wants to borrow it from me - just sing out! :P (You never know what God has planned...

Mon, Oct 20, 2008

Portable Displays Australia

Got a very special post coming soon...

In the meantime, I finished this site today - Portable Displays Australia. Check it out!

Thu, Oct 16, 2008

Curiosity Killed the Rat

So many things to blog about!! First up, today I received a lovely surprise from Amazon.com - 4 brand new CDs that I ordered a short while ago. And then, after losing our basketball game by 4 points, I checked my home mailbox at 11pm and found my BRAVE SAINT SATURN CD!!! Woohoo! It only took a week to get here, what are the chances. Thanks Reese! Thanks God! So if you're interested, the new CDs are:

• Brave Saint Saturn - Anti Meridian
• Anberlin - New Surrender
• Jack's Mannequin - The Glass Passenger
• Daphne Loves Derby - On the Strength of All Convinced
• Cute Is What We Aim For - Rotation

The BS2 album is better than I could have hoped it for - it has pretty much melted my face off. Contains just the right mix of songs, some heavier, some more upbeat and some more worshipful songs (although I don't like to use "worship" as a descriptor, I'm trying to get across that it's slower and more... meaningful? emotional? I dunno). All in all, VERY COOL ALBUM. YAY!

In other news, I thought I'd prove to you that I didn't stop cooking once I finished my Super 8 Challenge earlier in the year. Here's a meal I cooked just recently - Curried Sausages. From a "Cheap Eats" book Samara got for me! Was pretty nice the first time I ate it, but after 4 or so days in a row of eating this, it gets a bit bland :P

Strangely enough, while I was cooking this meal I had to venture into a cupboard (with a broken door) that I rarely open. Earlier in the year Lawson and I were aware that a mouse was sneaking around our kitchen when we weren't looking. I attempted to catch him once, but to no avail. I've had a feeling he's been sneaking into this cupboard and breaking open some of the packeted food in there (due to the bite marks I found on them). I was right. And now he's dead. So I win. He probably shouldn't have such a sweet tooth... he over-dosed on sugar. I found his small, limp, lifeless body lying half stuck under a dish and half covered in sugar. Poor little mousey. Photos are below :D (PS: Sorry for any confusion with the blog title... I realise the mouse is not a rat, and it probably wasn't curiosty that killed him - it was greeeed! But it was a nice play on words!)

PPS: I have managed to fix the feed, but I spent too long trying to figure out how to fix all the code so I just cheated and now the feed doesn't include all of the post, it just links you straight here. Let me know if it works now!

Tue, Oct 07, 2008

Positives and Negatives

Well I have some good news and some bad news.

The bad news is that I got an email from BSS today saying that they had only just posted my CD on the 3rd of October. Looks like I will be waiting even longer than expected.

The good news is that they issued a $5US refund for postage (they said that I had overpaid?) which works out considerably in my favour since the Australian dollar has lost value. I paid for the CD when the difference betwen US$ and AU$ was the smallest, and now I'm getting paid when the difference is the greatest! I think I might treat myself to a nice chocolate bar while I wait. Yum.