If you're on shuffle...

Let the song play out, who knows how you'll be inspired.

If the day gets on and you ain't done nothing, but you know you oughta "Everything's Not Lost" as Chris would always say.
Pick up the pieces left of the day and make something great. 10, 10:30, 11, 11:30...who cares, there's many more hours. Just snap out of it and get on your list, make some goals and get a headstart on tomorrow.

Easter Camp was really good.
I hadn't been a leader before and I learned some tremendous things.
I was reminded of God's patience and unending grace, as well as the amazing reminder of what the easter story is.
God gave me joy and security.

I met some young lads who were in my group and they were cool. They asked some huge questions which were stumbling blocks that threw us off discussion more centred on Jesus life, but it was fruitful discussion all the same. I gots ta remember to pray for them guys.

I want to be strong in God's Word as I once was. Tight bro's with, and still reverent of Jesus. I'm aiming high, trying hard and all that and all the rest is God's.

Been watching Chuck with Saskia - good show!
Also went to Dutch Delight (Dutch themed eatery), good food as always. And a fella playin his concertina was charming all up and down my earholes.
Splendid.

Reasons to be happy

. I have a bicycle

. It is sunny as heck

. Chilled and watched Chuck with Saskia last night and it was great, there were pop tarts involved

. Got free burgerfuel as well (Thanks Graeme)

. Went to bed in proper time for starting work at 6am

. God can make me strong

. I spent the second hour or so of work greeting chirpy morning workers

. I will be studying with my friends at Auckland Uni!

. My name is Jorge Regula (sorry, song in head)

. I am reading a great book

. Here is a quote

"To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."
- Life of Pi

Watch out cos we don't actually choose doubt as a philosophy. It just sometimes catches us unawares. Rock out your philosophical peripheral lenses and keep an eye out for ditches of doubt.

Another quick thought (this one came from hg this week) is...

Your character is made up of all the little decisions you make day to day. Its not just the obvious right/wrong decisions that build character, but the seemingly small bits and pieces of life that you don't lend a thought to, or don't sift through your conscience. Do godly things. Think godly thoughts.

I am thankful for friends who love you enough to challenge you and press you in weak places.

One last thing that makes me happy.

. My work name badge unlocks doors

Phonecall

Dang.
I just got a phonecall from my sis (Sasha).
Made me unsure about doing Graphic Design... or it just made me more interested in Psychology.
Weighing up these options is difficult.

Graphic design and Psych are both fun and exciting for me. I am bubbling with ideas for both. Mostly Psychology these days.
You'll only last in creative graphic design till your ideas become stale and the new blood comes through.
But in Psych you can study your whole life.
Psych takes a couple or three years longer to study.
Its easier to do Graphic Design.
Its easier to study Psych and then study Graphics later in life rather than the other way around.
Academic study was not my strength in high school.
To me studying graphics seems slightly daunting.
Studying Psychology seems like I'll be exploring.
My Mum, Dad, and Sasha have all studied Graphic design. It makes me feel like I'm under their shadow's.
I wonder which the world lacks more -thought provoking images or thinkers and counsellors?
I wonder which category I can contribute to?

I shall think and pray. Please give any advice.

Speaking of phone calls. Talked to Miriam on Han's phone on Monday. She's alive and stares at apples everyday. It was cool. Good to hear she is doing well!

I just rode a bike I bought on trademe. Still need to fix it up more, but it was a fun thing to do at night.
I will greet the morning at 5am tomorrow! Hooray for work. Oop, need to book a taxi.

I feel like I lack male role models. I have been looking in the wrong places.

Absurd

I believe squinting makes people more frustrated and have more negative thoughts.

I walked a lot in the sun today, to and from work.

I understood absurdist philosophy on a deeper level and so now I want to read Albert Camus.

I decided I'm gonna go to AUT and study graphic art. Soz m8s at uni, wish I could study with ya, but its alotta dough to to flog on chillin'

Then again, chillin' is priceless...

For eveything else there's mastercard?

DAMN MEDIA!!@!@!

Morning

Fresh air up the nose and out the mouth. I don't think I've been happier to breathe!

At work, but what a nice morning!

Bowling for joy

Woo!
At homegroup last night we were chillin for a bit, playing cards etc. Then Kent was like "Lets go bowling."
So we did!

It was spontaneous good times. Until we figured out why he wanted to bowl with us so much -to prove he was the awesomest!
Flippin strike after strike, I tell ya!

But it was awesome. Probably the most fun bowling I've ever had. 2 games for $10 meant we could do a good one, and then a silly one (like class photos). We found a genius combination sport which was sort of a mix of Pong and bowling.
It was awesome when Lance hit all the pins except 2 and they were one pin apart so there was a little gap and I was like, "Bowl it through the gap- don't hit the pins! It'll be awesome!"
Then he did! It was genius.

Awesome sermon on Sunday. Really relevant to my brain. But I will download it and listen again because I STILL haven't learnt my lesson.

On a serious note, joey told us a few weeks ago about a friend of his who was going through some tough times, asking questions of life, being confused and insecure, not understanding her self or the meaning of life. Real existential sounding and depressive.
joey texted us last night saying she is now under suicide watch, so please please have her in your prayers. Ask for peace and understanding for her, ask for God's presence, people's empathy and sympathy, ask for joey to have strength and wisdom to be a light where he can. Thank God he is the power of our power.

I'm just reminded of something. It ius a great thing to pray for others. When you are feeling a little frustrated with self, perhaps unable to speak to God about your own problems cos you feel like he's heard too much or you're too inside your own head - praying for others gives you an opportunity to speak with God and to know you're not being self-absorbed. To just speak with Him and plead with Him and thank Him- not on your own account.

Coldpoos

Saw Coldplay and it was sooooo lame!

Chris was jumpin' around, such a fool! Cussing and telling everyone he was better than them and then the FBI came and was like, "Laban we need you."

Nah actually that was a lie and it was cool. I just didn't want to be predictable. And I'm tired of reading/hearing/talking about it/too tired in general.

Been working early mornings (getting up at 5am). Coldplay made me stay up late too, and then when I was gonna go to work my taxi was waaaaayy late. So late that I waited for 10mins after they were supposed to come, then my dad dropped me to work and when he got home the taxi was there and he told him he'd already taken me.
And by that point there was far too much stress in the day for me to want to be awake anymore. Well my alarm was stress enough actually. I was dozing off while eating breakfast.

Thought a heck of a lot today.
It stops me from being able to enjoy things, or have normal conversations. I have the cynical bug atm. It doesn't help that I generally have a pretty rampant inner monologue anyway. Its good to be able share your thoughts with God. Turn monologue to dialogue. Sometimes guilt holds me back. Inadequacy. But grace is adequate and I love it. But sometimes you just can't bring yourself to say anything.
I feel like I'm the evidence for myself that God uses the weak. But I'm a bit of a squirmer. I guess we all are in different situations. When God presses your heart, puts you in situations where you have to learn the hard way or face something, then you start to squirm and try and Jonah out of it. But there's always a flippin fish after you. God's always got his merciful hand out there for you, even when you try avoid it.

On monday Rob Bell talked about forgiving someone meaning that you wish them well and want them to succeed.
...You think you've forgiven someone and then Rob whips that out.


But something I did enjoy today was talking about babies. Happened twice today.
And the sun was jolly today, once the morning rain gave way and that was real cool.

I have to return an umbrella i borrowed from work. Thanks for reminding me.
(It was my "onion lobe" kicking in) Ricky G inventin' organs, mocking Karl Pilkington.

e=MC Robotikz

Soooooooo...

Einstein is a DJ robot.

...nah not true.
But he is a robot. "Running on Windows XP" according to the flawless bank of human knowledge that is wikipedia.

Here we see "Albert HUBO" either flipping off some inferior physicist out of frame to the left, or maybe he's doing the Gran Torino Eastwood *pow* thing - its hard to tell what finger he's using.



Either way, Bush was lovin' it.

But for serious. This robot is scary as. He's like a terminator gnome with the mind of a scientific genius.

His hand is like way bigger than George Bush's. I bet Al's got a heck of a punch.


...Although if Bush was to punch back it'd probs be over for Albert, rock em sock em-style!

*KA-SPRONG!*

Peanut

Been thinking lots of things lately.

Don't look for things in the wrong place. If I tried to to analyse the last year I've spent out of school saying, "what have I done academically?" I'd be asking the wrong question, i'd be assuming that I'm supposed to have been on an academic pursuit, when really the last year and a half I've learned more about myself and others and life than ever before. I've learned about relationships and enjoyed relationships more than ever before.

Don't assume things.

Something else I've been thinking is that it is easy to see flaws. It's easy to laugh and to mock and to be a critic. Anyone can see when something doesn't work. We should show love and make our eyes eager to see and be grateful for good things, even amongst flaws.
It is easy to be wrong.

Be right. It is hard. But we are not alone. And don't just do right. BE right. From your inner core wish to achieve good for others' sake and make all things good. Value others, value virtue and discipline. Value God.
Seek good things, pursue them.

And don't wait for praise. You may just not receive it.
________________________________________________

TODAY WE HAD AWESOME WEATHER. Too bad I was working since 6am!

Today my favourite thing was lounging.

________________________________________________

On Sunday I was running late to church, missed my bus and caught the next one.
And while squeezing my brain trying to figure out which stop would be the closest to church I just decided to pull the cord and get out.
This meant someone who was running to the bus stop could get on, because i slowed the bus by getting off, otherwise they probably would have missed it. That rocked my soul in the bosom of Abraham.

Played with my friend's neice on Sunday too. She's tiny and just crawlin'. She uses her face to talk so she comes up with some pretty weird expressions. Totally beautiful. Totally honest and raw. If she wants to bite something, she does it. If she wants to hit your face or leg, she does it. She's a bold little bean.

Catch Up On My Bangs

These are things I got a bang out of (inspired thought in me):

I'm flatting with Abizmo (cat).

She was outside for like 5mins today before getting into a fight with a neighbouring cat.

Why do they wanna fight as soon as they see each other!?

It would be suck if we had to fight people whenever we saw them. I would lose heaps.

Abizmo did a wee in her defence when the cat attacked...or the other cat did a wee to attack Abizmo.

Something that made me sad today was a girl that was too thin. I think she thought she needed to be that thin. Too delicate an issue to just jump into someone's life and tell them they don't need to be like that. Too many people saying the opposite. What do you even do about it?

I wish people knew God loves us all.

THE TADPOLE AND THE FROG

"BE ashamed of yourself," said the frog. "When I was a tadpole, I had no tail."

"Just what I thought!" said the tadpole.

"You never were a tadpole."

 

(That is actually a whole short story - beginning to end - by R.L. Stevenson who wrote "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde")

Today "Hands Away" by Interpol came on shuffle at the right time.

Some lyrics to ponder

SONGS FROM 'THE MIDDLE EAST'

"We have material minds and restless hands,

longing hearts and empty beds.

So we purchase stuff and work too hard,

use our heads and fill our beds.

What have we done?"

- Lonely

"What we have is good as gold,

malleable, good to hold.

Molding's good, cos life is change.

Change is good and you are good at changing me.

There'll be an avalanche

on this desert land

it will come down

it will come down  to be

the evidence of heaven. I know

I love you

cos I know you well."

- Fool's Gold

"Your hair is long, but not long enough to reach home to me

but your beard someday might be."

- Blood

"Love was a sold Gibson 335 and your father's dream died that night, just to keep the electricity on."

- The Darkest Side

I feel edified reading and hearing these lyrics. I hope The Middle East visit NZ sometime.

Jokes from today

What's the meanest breakfast cereal in the world?

Scornflakes.
________________________________________________

What do you call it when you thought you saw Miriam today?

Merage.
________________________________________________

What breakfast preserve do people put on their toast in the Islands of the American Western Pacific Ocean?

Guamalade.
________________________________________________


k, lolz ya later.

Fixing

At home group on Monday we played some football.

And yesterday I remembered that Mike was in hospital with a broken ankle not that long ago.
I think it's a miracle that our bodies regenerate, create new flesh, rejoin bone or whatever.
No matter how medical science explains it, it doesn't take away the wonder and awe I have for God's creation and creative power. Just like the fact that I know the water cycle and how raindrops form doesn't take away from the magic of tonnes of gallons of water floating above me, and then dispersing gently and nourishingly onto our planet.
In a world where things seem perpetually detrimental, things fall apart, new jeans become old, holed jeans - why on earth should a bleeding cut choose to zip itself back up! Stupid!
But great at the same time. Healing wounds affirming life.
The power of life, aye? Something inherent in living organisms force them to continue pursuing life. I am thankful.

I suppose our attitudes and thoughts of ourselves & others shouldn't stray far from our biological intentions...
We should be growing our minds, refining our character and learning virtue. And I think all that comes from God, as our source of life -living life. Affirming his restoration and creativity in our physical healing and growth and in the growth of our hearts and attitudes.
That is the power of the Holy Spirit. How awfully humbling.

The Weekend

Donnell Bros Inc. Birthday (Lances Party) v1.9

• 1x Cricket+Ball cake
• 1x BBQ
• 20x Sausages
• 20x Chicken shish-kebabs
• 1x Sparkling Duet
• 1x PS3 w/Fifa 09
• 1x Xbox 360 w/Rock Band
• 1x Spa (cicada inclusive package)
• 4x Mafia card dejavu

(All chillin' provided)

Extras

• Choice mangere (pool redistribution)
• Choice mangere short course (2 Step program)

Sponsored by MAUDTransport (Major Awesome Underrated Driving)
_________________________________________________


Okay, so, Lances was swell chillin'. Met Sir Harbuz of Antony who was nice enough. Good Rock Band times were had. I really enjoyed playing the bass that night. Got home at a reasonable hour, which was good cos I had Bolder in the morning.

Sunday was pretty busy. Bussed to church around 9:15am and it turned out I didn't need to have a great sleep because we just watched a DVD at Bolder, but good sleepin' is good sleepin'.

Then spent the afternoon chillin' and millin' (around). I worked on Simon and Gabby's order of service for their wedding and got that all done which was good.
Was pretty tired by the afternoon and didn't do much.

Sunday finished with some ridiculous film editing and Denny's.
Oh, Denny's!!
Me and Ben were served by someone who actually seemed happy to work there and talked to us! It was some old chap who I'd not seen before, but do indeed hope to see again.

New Hat

My sis came back from a short trip to Australia today with a hat and a message and Stu.

The hat and message were for me. The hat was from my Aunty Shiny and it came with a message from my Aunty Rachel daring me to wear the hat all week. Its a cool hat.

Rain drizzling all around this morning. But its cool.

Got some new goals ahead of me to shoot for. I ought to right them down. You could write your own, too. Pray about them and pray for others.

Seeing Gran Torino tonight! Woop!

[EDIT]
lolz!
Just realised how well this works with my blog title. HAH! Thanks Shiny!

...genius!
[/EDIT]

Smales Farm bus station

I met this old lady at the bus stop yesterday. She was wearing an eye patch, which I thought was pretty stink.

Like being old and hurt in some way is lame cos I hear it takes ages for even little things to heal when you are old.

She approached me asking about a bus and I tried to help but I don't know heaps about where the buses go, I asked my bus driver if he was going where she wanted, but to no avail.

But I thought it was cool that she asked for help. Especially cos I didn't actually notice when she asked the first time and I sort of just walked off. Cos I couldn't really hear her and sometimes people just talk to themselves, you know?
...I felt bad about that after, when I realised she had been talking to me. It was pretty cool of her to persist to ask this delinquent teenager for help.

Its scary that one day I'll be old. Its scary to think I could end up with one eye, not knowing what bus to catch and having to rely on some stranger for help.

On the plus side, I found out pensioners get free bus rides.

One of the things we all think

...something i've been thinking. Its from toothpastefordinner.com

I bought some pegs today, from the same guy I bought towels from last week at the warehouse.

Uni...psych!

Dang. The sweet whether made me want to unicycle but i'm not living at home atm, so no luck.


Everyone be glad for the sun!
Today I made poems on the fridge with the valentines word magnets at my flat. Forgot to empty the dishwasher actually.


Had an encouraging lunch with Dale just before. Been havin encouraging conversations with people recently, boosting my ego and reminding me that studying and using your brain is gooooooodd.

Encouraging people is important. You don't know how far your words go or how far away someone feels. A grateful or kind gesture can be all it takes for someone to find life good for another minute or another day.

Encouraging good things makes people want to be good. When peeps achieve somthing, give em props. Forget doing the tall-poppy thing.


...more like tall-poopy! Am I right!?

Bunker Hill Folk Review Review

Bunker Hill Folk Review!

What a swell place! What a surprise! What a jewel!

Went to bunker hill folk review and it was amazing. What a charming and lovely atmosphere. So many people there dedicated to freedom of expression and people who simply love music and want to listen to what people say through their music.

No mics, no amps, just a musician and his/her weapon of choice (Timothy Blackman).

As soon as you walk into the bunker you can't help but feel like you've gone through a time warp or a door to another realm or something. Folk insignia scattered across every wall, posters, pictures, newspaper clippings and vintage tools - all adding to the dreamy world where people really listen to music.

It even had a folk library, books and CD's galore.

It was really cool to see Lid play there. It was my favourite gig of hers and also her most scary to play. I think I loved it because I know Lydia doesn't like it when people come to her gigs and just talk through them, and here you could watch the people listen and see them smile when they heard a lyric that was good for them.

As well as that it just is a lovely and simple thing to hear her songs totally acoustic and unplugged.

What a crazy place. Top hats, double basses, hate songs, protest songs, love songs, cushions, chairs, beer, tea, fiddle-improv. and political tye-dye t-shirts.

A big mark on my musical map. A place I must journey back to, not least to hear the great appearance of Great North, Phil Austen and Mali Mali.

I only hope I can remember to film upcoming gigs there and can capture some of the magic.

Life is good. Happy Birthday Wayne.

Thank the Lord for antibiotics. I'm glad that my phone already has this word in its predictive dictionary.
I've been sick and I have never been more glad for penicillin. Being ill made parachute hard and has lingered painfully for the last few weeks after since my first dose wasn't strong enough and my second dose came with doctors orders to take the dang pills on an empty stomach.

"(ONE hour before food or TWO hours after)"

I aren't complaining though, from what I've read having tonsils out as an adult sounds like 4 weeks of throat-death.
My pills are a retro reddish brown, the colour might make a nice jersey.

Tonight I watched march of the penguins between disobeying orders and stealing food that should interrupt my medicine. Penguins are pretty loyal to each other.

What I found cool was how they showed remorse or grief at the sight of an egg or baby penguin that had been claimed by the freezing climate. Sure these eggs or young'uns become abandoned and cast to the side once they have expired, but some penguins would stop and have a poke around with their beak, identify the sad case and seemed to take pause and think.
It was really touching to see that. Even Penguins seem to show an understanding of how precious life is.

Yesterday was Wayne Reynolds 21st birthday. I still struggle to understand that when he died he was younger than I am now. He was older than me and I feel he still is and I don't think reason or logic can convince me any different. He was smart, he excelled in school, he fought through immense pain with strength God gave him, with words to quote that God gave Him, and with family and friends that cherished him.
I'm incredibley thankful to God for him. Lessons are continuing to be learned from Waynes struggle, in my life at the very least.

It would be good to see everyday the gift that life is, thank God and spend time in His wisdom and live out our days with that richer perspective, but it maintains its place as being a real fight everyday, a battle for wholesome growth.