Stories + Recent Happenings.

Hello everyone!

Firstly, a couple of quick updates on stuff that's been happening lately.

I've recently put up my Four Chords, 100 Songs, Original Audio video, which I've been working on for quite a while, and can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4k62X4Kx7o
I think it's pretty awesome, and I'd love for it to get out there a bit :)

I've barely been doing anything with my music lately - I really haven't written anything, I haven't gigged at all, and it's been bugging me a fair bit. Thankfully, I've gotten this video up ^^^ which is something, but I'd really like to work on a bit more of my own stuff.

I'm also graduating from uni in a week from yesterday; which is pretty cool. Going to be good to catch up with everyone again, see what they're up to. Even though it will really be only for a few hours, but that's OK. Think it will be good. :)

There's probably more stuff that I'm not thinking of, but that will do for now. There are a couple of posts that I want to do that I haven't done yet, but I'll leave those for those posts.

On another tack, however. I've been doing a lot of camps lately, and there's been so many good moments, so many great stories. And I was just lamenting to a friend that there's just so many, it's getting difficult to remember them all. So they suggested putting it down here. Which makes sense and stuff, which makes me annoyed that I didn't think of it :P But anyway. I've been busy, OK? :P So yeah. Going to relate a few of the better moments of camps insofar. No names, I'm afraid, just because it's better that way.

Probably one of the best moments I've had so far was on a TAFE camp. It was a canoe trip out in Kangaroo Valley, and a few of us had decided to sleep in the canoes. I was pretty keen, I'd never done it before. We had just gone for a night paddle before that, actually, and that was pretty awesome. You pretty much just laid down in the canoe and looked at the stars. So peaceful. And sleeping in the canoe was just the same, really - it was so amazing being able to sleep like that, looking up at the stars. Would be awesome to have a glass roof or something just for that.... It is a little squishy on the sides, but it wasn't that much of an issue.
What was interesting, though, was what happened before we went to sleep. A point for beforehand: whenever we get out of the canoes, we tie them up with rope. Either that or pull them up onto the bank, but that can damage the bank. Also easier tying them up if there's not so much space, or a difficult bank to get up. But that's just a quick aside. We were getting into the canoes, and I had already put my sleeping mat and sleeping bag in, and then I got in. I got into the sleeping bag and started to lay down, and then I started to feel as if the canoe was moving - I thought I could see the landscape moving. So I sat up to discover that the canoe hadn't been tied up properly with the other canoes. I turned back towards the bank to find that I had already drifted about five metres. "Uh...guys?" We all laughed pretty hard then. I wasn't scared at all - it wasn't like there was much of a current - but I didn't have a paddle, so I had to use my hands to work my way back over to the bank. We joked about that quite a fair bit after that.

Aside from that, most of it's been little things. One girl at the last camp I went on thought for a moment that a red belly black was a spider. Close, but no cigar. She had a fair few of those moments, actually, but it was good. Made it interesting.
Another time, I was helping run the flying fox, and there was one girl who was really scared of going on. And it was a pretty big flying fox - you had to go up a hill to get to where you started, and the rest of us would wait at the bottom. And if you saw the end bit, there was quite a jolt. I believe the word "ragdoll" may have been used more than once. But we managed to convince her to get a harness on, and go up to the top. Then she got clipped in once. She debated about it, went so close for ages, they were really talking her into it and egging her on - she was in for about half an hour, then couldn't do it. A couple more people went through, she got clipped in a second time. Again, she couldn't do it. She got clipped in a third time, and finally did it. You know what one of the first things was that she said afterwards? "Can I do it again?" And she did, without hesitation. She loved it.
One of the best camps I've had so far was on the cabin side of Crosslands. Same camp as the last one, actually. I probably have it as one of my favourites because we were in cabins, we had cooks (one an actual proper cook - son of one of the Boomerang employees), and they had a piano there :D And I was playing that piano a fair bit, as you can imagine. And the kids really liked that - they were singing along with me sometimes, and a couple of other kids were playing as well, a couple more practiced than me.
On most camps that we've been on so far, whenever we haven't been in cabins, I've done the wake-up call. My go-to songs for this insofar have been The Circle Of Life, and a combination of Oh, What A Beautiful Morning and Oklahoma!, which have both gone down quite well. One of the best responses I had was one morning, one of the kids said it felt like he was waking up in Africa :) Another one said that he wanted to record it and use it as his alarm on his phone :D

Another thing that I've been able to do a couple of times now is Initiatives, which have been quite fun to run. So far, I've done Tarp Turnover and Acid River. And, of course, being me, it can't be that simple. Because you can explain them in about five seconds, but then it's no fun. I have to do a story ;)
So, with Tarp Turnover - all you have to do is get everyone on the tarp; flip it over without anyone touching the ground; fold in half similarly; repeat steps 2 and 3 until either time runs out or they can't do it any more. I however, come up with a much more interesting explanation.
"Over here, guys! Quick, on to the platform! OK, is everyone here? Good. Well, I've got some good news, and some bad news. Bad news is, we're flowing down an underground river of molten lava. The good news is, however, that we've managed to find a Lava Resistant Platform (or LRP for short), and, in fact, the only one around. So good job, guys! Problem is, with these platforms, that they're not perfect - the lava does manage to slowly eat through the platform. As such, it needs to be flipped regularly, to decrease the lava wear. Of course, being human, we can't really step in the lava - we tend to disintegrate fairly rapidly. I am wearing lava boots, but I have the only pair, and I can't take them off, because they're molded specifically to my feet. So you're going to need to flip the LRP completely, without stepping in the lava. You can carry each other if you want, but unfortunately the cave is too low for you to go on each other's shoulders." "OK, so you've flipped the LRP over. Fantastic! But, being weak, we now need to fold it in half, in order to increase its strength." "And now we need to flip it again!" Etc.
With Acid River - you have to get from point A to point B, using some foam mats. You have to be stepping on the foam mats all the time, and you can't put a mat down without having part of your body on it. If you don't, you lose the mat. There's one less mat than people. This became something more like this.
"Congratulations! You are among the first of a team of explorers on Mars. However, we have encountered a bit of a problem. Our barrel - which contains some invaluable supplies - has washed over a bit thataway. Thakfully, it has caught on a bit of a snag, so it's staying where it is for now; but we still need to go and get it. Unfortunately, it is in the middle of a giant acid lake. The thing is with us and acid, that we tend to boil and bubble and burst when we mix. I'm wearing special Acid Boots, so I'm OK. No, you can't wear them, there's only one pair and they don't come off. And no, I can't get the barrel for you, because it's too heavy for just me. We're all going to need to go and get it. Thankfully, the Science Faculty did consider this eventuality. They have provided us with a limited number of Weight Supporting Acid Resistant Platforms, or WSARPs for short (though people tend to just call them acid mats). Because they're weight-supporting, they can hold our weight; since they're acid resistant, they can do so in the acid; however, they are not current resistant. If you put them down in the lake without putting part of your body on them first, they will get carried away and we won't be able to get them back." "Fantastic! You've gotten to the barrel. Now, we need to get all of us and the barrel over to that point over there [about twice as far]. And, because of the wear these platforms are getting, if you aren't carrying the barrel, you need to be on just one foot at a time. You can change from one to the other, but you can't have one foot on two separate mats at the same time. You can jump between the two, but only one foot at a time. Thankfully, the barrel can be used to weigh down mats, or even to sit on, since it seems to be acid resistant as well."
So yeah, I had fun doing those.

There are so many more stories, but I really can't remember them all. As well as that, I don't have the space or time to write them all! I've already written quite a bit, so I'll leave it there, but I'll try to put up more fairly regularly.

:)

Four Chords, 100 Songs, Original Audio - Song List

Again, I had to post this here, because Youtube has a set description length.


This is the full song list:

1. The Fragrance Of Ithilien (from Return Of The King), by Howard Shore;
2. You're Beautiful, by James Blunt;
3. Forever Young, by Alphaville;
4. I'm Yours, by Jason Mraz;
5. Take Me Home, Country Roads, by John Denver;
6. Give It All, by Rise Against;
7. Superman (It's Not Easy), by Five For Fighting;
8. Right Here Waiting, by Richard Marx;
9. No One, by Alicia Keys;
10. High, by Lighthouse Family;
11. By Your Side, by Tenth Avenue North;
12. Dream Catch Me, by Newton Faulkner;
13. The Eastern Sky, by Adventure Land;
14. Beautiful Ending, by BarlowGirl;
15. Hope Vol. 2, by Apocalyptica featuring Matthias Sayer;
16. City On Our Knees, by TobyMac;
17. Bright Side Of The Rainbow, by Forever Road;
18. Legacy, by Nichole Nordeman;
19. Love Story, by Taylor Swift;
20. Don't Stop Believing, by Journey;
21. Wanna Be Loved, by dcTalk;
22. 20 Good Reasons, by Thirsty Merc;
23. Pathways, by Enoch;
24. Amazing, by Alex Lloyd;
25. Wherever You Will Go, by The Calling;
26. Can You Feel The Love Tonight, by Elton John;
27. She Will Be Loved, by Maroon 5;
28. Pictures Of You, by The Last Goodnight;
29. Cigarettes Will Kill You, by Ben Lee;
30. With Or Without You, by U2;
31. Happy Ending, by Mika;
32. Where Is The Love, by Black Eyed Peas;
33. The Show, by Lenka;
34. Lady Luck, by Latch Key Kid;
35. Vanilla Twilight, by Owl City;
36. You Raise Me Up, by Secret Garden;
37. 21 Guns, by Green Day;
38. 9 Crimes, by Damien Rice;
39. Tonight I Wanna Cry, by Keith Urban;
40. Fire, by Krystal Meyers;
41. Give It All Away, by Aaron Shust;
42. Magic, by Kaytee Faulkner;
43. Canvas Bags, by Tim Minchin;
44. Misery, by Good Charlotte;
45. Dead Man (Carry Me), by Jars Of Clay;
46. Beds Are Burning, by Midnight Oil;
47. Ishmael, by Helen Mottee;
48. Fall At Your Feet, by Crowded House;
49. Not Pretty Enough, by Kasey Chambers;
50. Let It Be, by The Beatles;
51. Under The Bridge, by Red Hot Chili Peppers;
52. The Horses, by Daryl Braithwaite;
53. Down Under, by Men At Work;
54. Here I Am, by Bryan Adams;
55. Boulevard of Broken Dreams, by Green Day;
56. Breakeven (Falling To Pieces), by The Script;
57. The Lost Get Found, by Britt Nicole;
58. Breakin' Down, by Latch Key Kid;
59. Wait And See, by Brandon Heath;
60. Grenade, by Bruno Mars;
61. Dive, by Steven Curtis Chapman;
62. Almost Anything, by Latch Key Kid;
63. Holiday, by Green Day;
64. Complicated, by Avril Lavigne;
65. For Once, by Helmut Uhlmann;
66. When You Love Someone, by Bethany Dillon;
67. The Meaning Of Life, by Hawk Nelson;
68. Blood To Bleed, by Rise Against
69. Always, by Blink-182;
70. Urban Hermit, by Brendan Raymond;
71. Taylor, by Jack Johnson;
72. Take On Me, by A-ha;
73. When I Come Around, by Green Day;
74. Save Tonight, by Eagle Eye Cherry;
75. Africa, by Toto;
76. Self Esteem, by The Offspring;
77. Apologize, by Timbaland featuring OneRepublic;
78. U + Ur Hand, by P!nk;
79. It's Time To Go For Growth, by The Axis Of Awesome;
80. Does Anybody Hear Her, by Casting Crowns;
81. Birdplane, by The Axis Of Awesome;
82. Drowned, by Tim Minchin;
83. In Pieces, by Shannon Noll;
84. Stranded, by Latch Key Kid;
85. Waiting On The World To Change, by John Mayer;
86. New Song, by Jordan Worner;
87. Happy, by Ayeisha Woods;
88. Be Like That, by 3 Doors Down;
89. May It Be, by Enya;
90. You Found Me, by The Fray;
91. Light Up The sky, by The Afters;
92. Breathe Into Me, by RED;
93. Give Me Your Eyes, by Brandon Heath;
94. Angel In The Alleyway, by Latch Key Kid;
95. The Scientist, by Coldplay;
96. Reflections, by Jay Seeney;
97. Collide, by Howie Day;
98. Poker Face, by Lady Gaga;
99. Kids, by MGMT;
100. Scar, by Missy Higgins.

93. is reprised at the end.

Thoughts on the future.

My life has had an interesting few twists and turns here and there. In high school, I was doing mostly sciences. In uni, I did music. Now, I'm doing outdoor rec. Just a little different.

But part of that's been because I just like so many different things. And part of it's also because that's what worked for me at the time, and what I needed then.

Because, in a way, I know what it is I want to be doing for the rest of my life. The problem is, it's a bit difficult to get paid for; and even if that was a possibility, I don't think I'd want to be. I'd think that that might well ruin it for me, in some ways. But, of course, money is something it becomes a bit hard to get by without in this day and age. Especially if one day you want to have a partner and raise a family, which I do.
So, until I can figure something else out, this is what I do.

But I'd love to be able to write my music more often. And write for screen media - TV, film, games. Or musicals! That would be fun. And playing my own music. And just writing other stuff as well. Stories, books, plays, musicals, talks, so many things I have in my head that I could write that it's ridiculous. I have an encyclopaedia of encyclopaedias in my head :P And acting more - plays, musicals, maybe TV or film sometime, doing some voice acting for games. And volunteering for different things - OzHarvest is one thing I've wanted to get involved with for a while. Having worked in a kitchen, you can imagine I'm not a fan of wastage. Maybe even some stuff with Voice of the Martyrs at some point. Heck, I'd love to just get more involved with my own church - being able to get actively involved in leading and organising the Youth Group, organising the computer, doing admin, helping lead worship maybe, perhaps preaching sometime if I ever get up to there. Get a degree in Theology or something similar beforehand, might be an idea. (Not that I think the latter is required for the former - I have preached twice before. Just helps.) I'd love to study more in other areas too - Psychology, Language, History to name a few. I'd love to really learn and study Quenya in-depth. I'd love to see the world. All of it. I'd love to be able to run more often. (Speaking of which, *shameless self-promotion* doing a 100km run that I need to get some sponsors for. If you want to find out more, look here: http://www.wildendurance.org.au/event.php If you would like to sponsor me - which would be seven levels of amazing - look here: http://events.wildendurance.org.au/Bjraymond )I'd really love to be able to put time and effort into the relationships I have with people that I really treasure. I'd love to be able to make this brain do all I know it can do.

But yeah. At the moment, a lot of that is just dreaming, unfortunately.
I now have a folder on my desktop entitled "Projects". Essentially for everything I would put time into if I had time to put into it. That folder isn't ever going to be empty, I can tell you that right now.

By the way, just thought I should mention. Don't think I'm just saying this all because I don't like my job. I love it, it's fantastic. The only problem with it is, the best bit of it is the worst bit - you go away on camps and have heaps of fun, but you're away from everything so much. It sucks up your time like you wouldn't believe. Combine that with TAFE - plus other stuff I'm involved with - and it gets ridiculous. But I do love it. :)

So yeah, I wish I could do everything up there. But most of that either costs money, or doesn't give you much money. And if it does, I probably don't want it to.
There's the quandary of me for you.

The Effect Of Mass.

There aren’t a lot of games I play any more these days. Part of that's because I don't have a lot of time on my hands; part of that's because I don't have a lot of cash on my hands; part of that's because I've come up to some spots in games I want to finish first that I'm finding difficult to get past.

But there's one series I've basically always enjoyed, and I'm now playing through again. And that's the Mass Effect series.

For those that aren't at all familiar with it (:P), it's a spage-age action RPG. But it's also very heavily story-oriented; and that, I suppose, is what I like so much about it. It presents you with difficult choices; choices that have a real implication on your game, and in the latter games as well. Choices that will have a real implication on your characters, and whether they will all survive or not.

It's not just a point-and-shoot game that you fudge through. If you want, you could probably make it like that. Set it on the easiest settings, skip through the dialog and cutscenes, click any conversation choices that will cut it short. But that won't give you the best Mass Effect experience. If you want something like that, go play Halo. This game isn't for you.

This game will make you choose between destroying the last creature of an entire race that used to mercilessly destroy you, or accept their claim that they did not know what they were doing. This game will make you choose whether or not you shoot your teammate who's endangering your mission, or put effort into sticking him back on track. This game will make you choose between one of your squad members, and another one. And the one you didn't choose gets killed.
And that's just in the first game.

In the third game you're making the really tough decisions almost straight away. Like whether to cure the sickness of a whole race and guarantee their allegiance, or only pretend to and gain the allegiance of another's that originally caused the sickness. Both races are ridiculously invaluable.

This game makes you really think. About the choices that you make, and the impact that they have. And if you don't think, then you learn pretty quickly. And you shape your character. You can make them into an all-guns-blazing, no-nonsense hard-as-nails war hero. You can make them into someone with awesome tech skills and sabotage everything, or having these super abilities that can throw people around the room. You can make them into someone who cares, and will always try and get everyone out alive and well.
You can equip them with every single upgrade, weapon and armour available, or decide to spend your resources elsewhere. You can spend all your time looking for every little hidden item, every single achievement, or just play through the game as you go.

Often, as you can imagine, the characters people end up making will largely reflect on the people playing them.

Of course, there are downsides to the game. I'm playing through the first game at the moment, and I'm remembering how annoying I found all that driving around. (I'm also loving unlimited ammo while I have it ;D ) In the second one, I'll be finding that mining mini-game annoying. Just the kind of stuff that you can spend half an hour on and have absolutely nothing happen in terms of story or action. More the former for me, but even the latter would have been nice at that point. Just not a fan of the grinding.

But, by and large, there's a good reason that I'm re-playing it through. I mean, I'm doing it just because I heard that it plays differently in the third game if you stay with the same girl throughout the series. Originally, I went with the human one in ME1 and then the different human in ME2, because the first one isn't even there. I didn't even realise that you could stick with her. This time, I'm planning to go through ME1 without anyone, then stick with the second girl.
But I'm playing through all three again - just to get material that I won't begin to see until the third game. That should tell you enough about the game, really. Or maybe me. Potato, Potahto.

Either way, this series remains my favourite story game ever. And I haven't even mentioned technical aspects like graphics, music, SFX, or anything like that. (They're all amazing.)
But I suppose I just wanted to write something in memory of a trilogy of games that I'm really going to remember, and that I really enjoyed. And I know that a lot of other people really did as well.

:)

Broken.

The other night at church, we had an Encounter Night. The idea is that it gives you lots of different opportunities to encounter God. Prayer, offering, creative connection, etc. There were a couple of moments that really made a bit of a mark with me on that night, that I wanted to share.

One I very much didn't expect. One of the other guys at church - that I know quite well - said this to me while I was standing next to him: "When a candle lights another candle, it doesn't lose any of its light." It should be noted that we were standing just in front of a full plate of them then, hence the comment. But it was one that hit me, I think - because one of the things I think I'd always thought that when I gave to others, it was coming away from myself. I suppose recalling somewhat that phrase from Lord of the Rings - "I give hope to men; I keep none for myself." But that's not necessarily the case. And that was heartening to know.

The other one was when I went over to the drawing section. I'd had an idea for here straight away - a sort of gradient going through the colour Bible (as I remember it: green for the original creation, black for the fall/our sin, red for Jesus' blood, white for the purity Jesus gives us, yellow for heaven). Well, that was all well and good. But when I got to red, I wanted it to be really deeply in the paper. So I was pressing really hard on the pencil. And it tore through the paper. And then I thought - actually, that works. So I proceeded to do a diagonal tear pretty much across the whole paper in the middle of the tear.
It showed to me that Jesus didn't just cover over sin. He didn't just plonk it somewhere else. He broke himself, putting up a barrier between us and sin. That doesn't mean that we will never sin - but it does mean that when he cleanses us, sin will never cover us again.

I thought that that was pretty cool :)

Some things.

Some things are hard.
Some things are broken.
Some things are sad.
Some things are lost.
Some things hurt.

But.

Some things are amazing.
Some things are special.
Some things are beautiful.
Some things are indescribable.
Some things are joyous.

Some things are people.
Some things aren't.
But some are.

Today is a good day.


Sorry that I haven't put up much lately. I'm working on another post from a great night that I had at church recently, and I've almost finished a particular project that I'm hoping to post about soon as well. But I just needed to post that for now.

:)

Rediscovery.

As some who know me and my piano playing a bit may be aware of, I have a few music books. I have one for just my songs; then one for mainly songs by dcTalk; then one of covers, then one overflow, then a second overflow; then one for church music; then I had one for songs of mine and covers for gigs. That last one, I lost a little while back. At least half a year ago, maybe a full year. And I had some really good songs in there - some which I only had that copy of, which was really annoying. And I looked for that folder everywhere; at home, at uni - I asked other people if they had seen it, I had no idea.

I assumed that I would probably never see it again. But today, it was right there in a pile of books on top of the piano. I'd definitely looked there before, and I have no idea why I didn't see it. But, needless to say, I was very happy. I was rediscovering all these songs that I had half-forgotten - and the memories came flooding back, so much better than before for the time and miles that had passed since then.

One particular song - that I'm listening to right now - may just become my new favourite song for a little while. Which is fairly impressive, but I think it's well earned. I'll keep this one to myself for the moment, though. Keeps it a little bit special :)

Empty 2.

I've written a bit more of that story I started mid-late last year. Here's the link to the earlier bit: http://modnarama.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/empty.html Sorry it's taken me so long to post up some more. Only actually gone back to it twice; so I've got two sections here, one from today and one from a bit before.

And you feel it. If people don't know me, when they try to come and share with me, as soon as they touch they recoil - as if I've got some sort of disease that they could catch. And the thing is, it's kind of a big thing in society if you avoid contact with people. Because it means you don't want to share with them, don't want to be with them, you want to keep everything to yourself. You get a couple like that, but they don't get very far. 

But everyone stays away from me. They don't even try to hide it any more. I have no family. No friends. I'm a hermit by force rather than choice. I don't want to live like this. This isn't . . . life. It's not really living. It's just a half-life, a shadow of one. A shadow of a life is barely a life at all. A footprint on a beach, an echo in a seashell.
  

Perhaps you don't quite get it. Try this image. Have you ever played with water droplets before? They're quite incredible, actually. The surface tension holding each droplet together gives it some interesting properties. For example, if they get to just within touching distance.... shloop! They clump together. Clump is a bad word, because it's a liquid, but you know. Water droplets love each other, that's the point. But you put an oil droplet in.... the water droplets don't want to know. They leave that little oil droplet all by itself. 

OK, so maybe you didn't play with water and oil when you were a kid, but you get the point. Water and oil don't mix, and I'm the little oil droplet. Or maybe think of it this way: it's like being mute. And deaf. Nothing comes in, nothing comes out. But you get to see everyone else communicating perfectly fine, and being happy, and loving each other, and... yeah, you get it. 

It's not that I can't communicate. Obviously I can. But it's a thing. Think of it like shouting all the time, instead of just talking. Now it's talking instead of touching. You still talk, but only when you need to communicate far away or to lots of people at once. It's considered somewhat rude to use if the situation doesn't actually need it. Some people, if they really concentrate, can actually almost completely eliminate the need to talk at all - they can project their thoughts, when they really focus. It's a pretty rare talent, but those who have it really don't talk at all. Of course, it is then difficult to tell then if they're actually able to speak or are just mute. I've considered stepping on a couple of toes to ascertain just that, now and then. 

It wouldn't be so bad if people tried to make it easier for me. Actually talked to me now and then. But they don't. By and large, I live in a silent world. And since nobody talks to me, I tend not to talk very much either. Just a word or two now and then, to make sure I haven't gone mute as well.

Cars, pianos and rocks.

So, a lot of stuff has been happening lately.

This whole week I've had to go into TAFE, because that's a part of my traineeship. For this week, I had to go up to Lithgow, which is about two and a half hours away - up and down and up a mountain. Pretty winding, steep and dangerous road. Most of the guys decided to camp up there, save the trips and such. I needed to come back on the Monday and Thursday nights, for stuff I was involved in.
On the way back on the Monday, it was raining pretty hard. So the road was quite wet and slippery. Couple that with steep downhill, and a tight curve.... thankfully, I wasn't hurt, and the car didn't get much damage. I just went slightly off the road, and thankfully not into the other side, where the thick cement barrier was. And, I could drive away from it, which was good. But yeah, that's the first time that's ever happened. Hopefully the last.
Then when I went in on the Tuesday, the car broke down. Badly. It had to go to the service station, and they're saying it will take about a week and a heck of a lot of dough to fix. Which is....annoying. I'm thinking I may be using a lot more public transport than car these days. I'm just not liking cars, and cars aren't liking me.

On the Tuesday night, we went out to the local bar/hotel/thing there. And they had a piano. And not just a piano, but a grand piano. And not just a grand, but a one hundred year old grand. I was...possibly drooling. OK, not quite, but close to it.
And I got to play it!
It was pretty out of tune, I must admit. Had to avoid certain notes. But, I got to play Piano Man, Hallelujah, and Angel in the Alleyway on it before the customers started to say it was too loud. But it was pretty cool :D

Then we had TAFE. And just outside our classroom, we had rock climbing walls. Rock climbing walls. We didn't get to really harness up for them, so we had to stay below a certain point. So what we did was went across them - it's apparently called bouldering or something. But it was pretty cool.
Apart from that, this week was pretty much an intro to all the stuff we were doing this year. All looking pretty cool, though time is something it looks like I'm going to be quite short on. But I expected that anyway.

So yeah, big week. Didn't bring all the stuff I needed for everything, so that made it difficult too. Managed to make it work, but it was more difficult than it could have been. Had some fantastic views too. :)

Live Loving.

Sorry that its taken me so long to do this. Work has kept me really busy, and now our Internet has been down. But this is the final one in my series that I started near the end of last year, on what we consider to be most important, or central.

If you can remember; I've considered wisdom, touched on happiness, investigated individual independence, and looked at trust, integrity and honesty. Each of them had their various positives and negatives from my point of view, and none were necessarily wrong or right. However, I would like to put forward my own ideas, as I am rather wont to do.

A couple of weeks ago, a very good friend of mine did a short talk for communion. In it, he mentioned how he had been looking for something to put on a Kung Fu Teacher's Patch; that is, he would have that patch on his uniform, then whoever he taught would get the same patch. He came up with these two words: Die Fighting. They were quite apt, and suited him to a tee. He then linked that into Jesus' frame of mind with the cross, which is how Kung Fu crept into a communion talk.

But that got me thinking inversely, as these things can do. And I came up with two words of my own, which I think both oppose and pair nicely (though the latter is a point for another post) with the previous: Live Loving.

To those who have been fairly regular readers if the blog, those two words probably aren't particularly surprising. But I think they're quite profound. Keep in mind, this is within the context of that which is most important to someone; central. It's not just saying that we're going to be loving. Or that love is a good thing to show or have now and then. But to actually *live loving*.

I'm certainly not the best example of that. If that's what you're looking for, try Jesus. You'll find him in the four gospels; I like John particularly. But that's the ideal that I always strive for. That I constantly remind myself of. I'd almost call it my measuring stick of sorts - my plumb line, to know when I've deviated a little to the right or the left.

I even reckon that, if you really know and understand what Live Loving means - and practice it fully - that you can never be in opposition to God, because he is love. But, of course, we never can, because of our imperfections. I still find it a good idea to remember, however.