Utter Utter Somethings

Just Guybo and myself in the office today, which is a recipe for two things; entertainment and disaster (generally in some kind of combination) First half of the day went well if not, perhaps, productive. Then we left for Youth Cafe and the fun began.

First; we missed the bus.
Second; sitting at the bus stop I managed to lean on my glasses and pop one of the lenses out.
Third; I found the screw and pulled out my little knife/tool thingo to put it back in but just as I went to insert the tiniest screw on earth I slipped and lost it in the dirt on the side of the road. Several minutes of Guy and I scratching about like chickens, me with the lens squinched in my eye like a monocle, produced nothing even when we enlisted the aid of a girl at the bus stop (who picked my accent as aussie, well happy with that as I've been told I'm losing it)
Fourth; realise about two minutes after getting on the bus that we left the cushion covers for the couch at the office.
Fifth; get a call from Guy whilst sitting in the Optometrist waiting to have my glasses fixed informing me that he thinks he has left the key to the cafe in the office in Haddenham.
Sixth; Optometrist informs me that my glasses are buggered as the screw was not loose but rather there is a crack in the frame. He managed to fix it so that it will stay for a bit but if it goes again its stuffed.
Seventh; get to cafe and find Guy standing outside talking to Charlie. Briefly consider taking her and Guy down the pub and sitting out in the beer garden for the rest of the afternoon, rehearse my explanation to Wendy and Mal when they ask why Charlies irate parents are calling them about the youth workers who took their daughter to the pub and dismiss this course of action despite the temptation to do it for the sheer comedy value.
Eighth; boost Guy over the fence when we realise that we don't need a key once we're past the spiked gate, just the security code to the door. Once inside realise that in order to set anything up we need the key to the cupboard which we don't have and that the cushion covers for the sofa are also in the office in Haddenham. Decide to sit up top drinking tea, playing Hackey and chatting.
Ninth; Guy decides to teach us to sing. Charlie, it turns out, can sing like a nightingale. I, on the other hand, can't. The singing lessons get better and better as we go and end up replacing all the words to This Little Light of Mine with "moo". Guy informs us both that we both can sing very well despite our protests to the contrary.
Tenth; Charlie leaves and Guy looks at me with and says "Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Same thing he asked me when he called me in the optometrist. Bad news first. He pulls out the cafe keys and informs me he found them in his pocket about halfway through our singing lesson but didn't have the heart to tell me, and besides our singing lesson was going so well.

We had an entertaining chat, that involved a v comic discussion of the "take Charlie to the pub idea" (which incidently had crossed his mind as well) and the ensuing explanation, in his version Charlie had had twelve triple vodkas and was in hospital having her stomach pumped whilst we explained who we were, where we were from, and who precisely was responsible for our actions to Charlies parents. Before we parted for the day and headed for home thanking God that he works through our weakness and not through our organisational skills.

The Answer

High Thanks to Andy Riley for the "five sided square" which is one of the many bits of genius I have extracted from his book. I hope you appreciate the comedy as much as I do.
Haven't been able to sleep the last few nites. Last nite I gave up trying and stayed up til three in the morning before finally finding that I was tired enough to collapse. Unfortunately the inability to sleep disappears the instant I lose consciousness and is replaced with an inability to awaken. My first thought upon waking was "Crap, I owe Dan a pie!!" (we have an ongoing bet about who will get to staff meeting first/on time) Ahhhh well...
Seeing 300 tonite!! Can't wait, gonna be so good!!
Just back from seeing 300 and thought I'd update this. The cinematography and graphics were fantastic. Very violent, as expected but the violence was done in a computer game style that was not real enough to make it hit home but incredible to watch. Fantastic battle scenes. The story was great, absolutely butchered the legend of Thermopylae but that was more or less what I expected anyway and it was done very very well, could have stretched it out over another half hour but it was still satisfying. The style of the movie was surreal. Based on a graphic novel (really big comic) it carried with it some of the typical elements of fantasy that are found in graphic novels aimed at older teenage, lets face it, boys, so there were a couple of nudie bits and plenty of drama. One thing that I noticed that I was a little bit perturbed about was that Xerxes (the Persian king) was referred to as King of Kings, Lord of Hosts and a couple of other titles reserved for God. I understand that the kings and emperors of the ancient world often fashioned themselves as "gods" but I've not seen quite so many biblical titles bestowed upon a character in a film who clearly does not represent God. (the last I remember noting was a song in Tarzan that called him the son of man) This is not something that causes me particular concern, it was just interesting to note. I did thoroughly enjoy 300 but I feel obliged to offer this warning (if it is not obvious already): it is not a girls film, and it is definitely not a film my parents should see. (Jordan will enjoy it a lot tho)
Oh! Almost forgot; it has David Wenham in it who is a legendary Aussie actor (played Faramir in Lord of the Rings) from the series Sea Change, which I would not hesitate to put forward as one of, if not the best australian television series ever.

The Square

This square has a secret fifth side that you can only see if you stare at it for a very very long time.
Leave a comment if you've got it

Andy McKee

I've seen Phil Keaggy play live and he does the impossible. Andy McKee I've only seen on YouTube but he's pretty amazing. He also has a wikid beard and looks a bit like Al who I had a good chat to today (broached the topics of Calvinism and Purgatory, bloody catholics)

Sophie

Is 18 today!! Happy birthday sister!! Scophie is the best sister I have and could want and I miss her loads. (miss the boys too but its not their birthday(s) When we were little Soph and I used to play for hours and make up games and all sorts that was great fun, we have some sweet (and v embarrassing) home video of us playing in our band, consisting of a drum made out of an upside down washing basket and a wooden spoon. I remember Soph always used to be the one who would opt to miss out on stuff, like seconds of desert or some kind of treat, if there weren't enough to go around. She has a really beautiful selfless spirit. Stuff wasn't always great between Soph and I. There were a few years in the teenage bracket that were quite nasty in fact. This is a source of disappointment and regret for me, that I didn't have the maturity and love to see my sister outside of how she impacted on my world, and that I failed to care for her and be a good big brother in the years it probly would have counted most. As we both started to grow up a bit, and especially after I moved out of home, our relationship got heaps better and now we are quite close. Whenever I go home or get hold of her on the fone we have great chats about things and it's like it was when we were little, just enjoying each others company. Particularly of late I have noticed that Scoph is growing in Wisdom and Spiritual Maturity. She has twice now (at least) given me very solid advice that I have found massively helpful. I love you Soph and hope you have an amazing day and a wonderful year full of joy and opportunity.

Freezing

Every time you think England is about to return to it's beautiful sunny state of summerness; it crushes your hopes with an ice cold fist. Snow. Thats right. And not even the nice stuff. The horrible sleety, flipping cold nasty stuff. I was well enough to head in to work today, after a slow start, which meant I ran into Dave whose come back to fix the ceiling and the bathroom. (He was fixing the bathroom upstairs a couple of weeks back when we heard something crack, someone swear, and then water started to come (read: pour) through the kitchen ceiling) Dave's a great bloke and so I stopped for a chat with him and Barbara over breakfast, the highlight of said chat was when Barbara said "Dave'll be fixing the bathroom upstairs from tomorow morning, so you better be in and out of the shower nice and early" brain still waking up at half ten struggled to compute exactly what she meant (still working on present tense I was like: I already had a shower, what're you talking about) Barbara turns to Dave "What time do you start?" (Daves MILES ahead of me on this one) "Oh, about quater to six" brain suddenly catches up, head jerks back in surprise "You What?!?" Barbara and Dave collapse in laughter, brain makes up the final few inches and realises I've been had.
Caught the train to Risboro and spent half the day shifting another mountain of junk out of the other half of the shop this time, the other half the day I spent making an invite for the Youth Forum we're hosting on Monday nite. I whipped up a brilliant one in about five minutes and shewed it to Geoff and Tim. Tim turned around and said he liked it but shouldn't we use the A2 logo rather than the CCF one? Conceding the point I got him to email it to me and replaced the CCF logo. And then the problem hit. Whilst the church logo is a quite nice picture of a red kite in a colour that perfectly matched the colour scheme I'd picked off of Publisher, the A2 logo did not. In fact the A2 logo is a garish royal blue on white. After fiddling unhappily with Publishers colour schemes I eventually gave in and went with the duotone of the A2 logo and produced an exceedingly dull invitation that a three year old could have put together. I have decided two things. One: I cannot wait to get my new mac laptop and have access to some brilliant graphic design technology all in a compact, stylishly simple, light weight package that is the MacBook (or the iBook, depending on how much money I end up deciding to fork out for this thing). Two: if I ever start a church I am going to maintain enough of a level of authority over things to ban anyone from ever using royal blue and white and any other stupid, tasteless, uncool design concepts that will utterly destroy our credibility and any hope of maintaining coolness with present youth trends. Now, youth trends in general seem to be a bit extreme (and some of them are just plain stupid) and so attempting to match them does not make you cool; it makes you a try hard. However, maintaining some sort of standard of style and taste will raise your estimation with young people. Even if they wouldn't wear or choose anything the same, they will still see the coolness present in being integral to your own identity without caving to tack or imitation.
The final moment from today that I feel is noteworthy enough to keep me awake any longer came after dinner tonite. In the kitchen (seems to be the place for comedy at the moment) we were clearing the dishes and chatting generally. I turned to Andy, whose just come home from uni for easter and turns 21 on Sunday, and asked him a question about Monday nite (I'd got an email from him about a nite out in Aylesbury with a bunch of his uni mates -not as rowdy as it sounds, they're from Cambridge- that said he was going out with whoever could make it, about 30 people on the list, and anyone who wanted could crash at his [parents] after) As we discussed this it caught his parents interest "What's this then?" and it dawned on me that they didn't know anything about it, and I sat there cracking up as it dawned on them exactly what we must be talking about. Andy didn't say anything but he was trying hard to a. not laugh and b. avoid eye contact with his parents. Classic!!

Dreams

I've been sick since Sunday arvo. Some sort of cold thing that has totally sapped my energy and given me a nasty sore throat. Scored some time off work tho!! I often get strange dreams when I'm sick and this time has been no exception. Sunday nite I dreamed I was playing rugby with a bunch of people, my team was doing well but losing because for some reason all my players kept disappearing until there were just three of us in the scrum against about twelve on the other team. For some reason on of my two team mates was a girl in a skirt. Somehow this dream morphed into me fighting alongside Gandalf against two baddies, then Gandalf disappeared and it was just me using his staff and then that turned into a spear and I was was fighting a sorceress who I killed. And then I woke up. Strange stuff. Loving that I fought alongside Gandalf tho.
Am engaged in a fierce contest for top score on Solataire at the moment. Emma is presently beating me with 11168 points in 66 seconds. Nigh on impossible. I'm a whole 5 seconds behind her. Male pride at stake. Have ceased play for the day coz I am feeling like crap and no longer have access to a computer with a mouse (touchpad is useless for soataire) but will resume my efforts tomorow.