MYC fun and craziness

I'm back at home after an awesome MYC, and I have to pack again to go back to college tomorrow. MYC was so much fun, and really amazing in terms of being challenged and encouraged in my faith aswell. A little segment of conversation I particularly liked seems to encapsulate the main idea of the talks, in addition to the craziness that is CU...

Bella (to Sean): You're a complete Christian even if you stand on ladders cutting basketball hoops with knives.
Sean (to Bella): And you're a complete Christian even if you go around spraying people with deodorant.

Such crazy times. MYC is always great cause I get to spend lots of time with all my friends, and build deeper relationships. But I've also met so many new people that are really cool, and I look forward to seeing everyone again this week. I also look forward to seeing all my 2nd year education friends at 9am this Monday for an EDUC262 lecture, hehehe won't that be fun?!

At other MYCs the talks have been full of different ideas, related to eachother but different. This time, though, it seemed like there was one main idea repeated and elaborated and reinforced over and over again. But that idea is the most important in the whole world. If you were only going to know one thing in your life, it would be that salvation comes only through faith in Christ and not through our own works. I thought it was awesome that we did spend so much time dwelling on this amazing truth and praising God for it. I also really liked Scott's answer to the question I asked during question time about whether having the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Spirit are different things.

'We don't get more of the Spirit. The Spirit gets more of us.'

It is a challenge to be daily offering my life to God, and to be offering more and more of my life to him. God is so awesome and completely worthy of all our praise! I've been reinspired to live for God, and I pray that this passion doesn't fade, but also that I'll be faithful and joyful even when I don't feel like it.

I think it's pointform time now, as I reminisce upon all the wonderfully crazy and sweet things that happened over this week.

* The Bens, Bec and Sonny wearing school uniforms on the first day and having prefect elections.
* Amalya and Isabella being there.
* The black nails club - Sean, Shan, Ali, Roxi...for some reason I had trouble convincing others. But then the nailpolish looked like it was going to run out so I stopped trying to recruit new members.
*Playing twister with Roxi and Ali, and also watching other people play once I had changed back into my long skirt.
* Watching Sean attempt to cut the ropes of the basketball net with a kitchen knife. Not so much funny as scary. But a little bit funny.
* Having tea with 6 sugars one morning and watching everyone elses reaction...then watching my reaction. If you noticed carefully, I didn't do that again.
* Shan's death metal Galatians performance. I walked in and had that hilarious look on my face because I knew *exactly* what was going on.
* When we were voting at the AGM, Fiona wanted to put a simpsons quote on her form. So she decided on 'One for Martin, two for Martin'. She didn't want to write it while Heather was standing next to us collecting forms so she waited, but by the time she'd finished the forms had already been taken into the next room, so she ran to the other room and gave it to the people there. So, unfortunately, her 'one for Martin, two for Martin' wasn't as anonymous as she hoped it to be. It was pretty hilarious at the time.
* Thankyou Manda for your commitment to serving us through music. I know there were heaps of issues to organise and work through. Thanks heaps. And also thanks for talking in small group.
* Singing Kumbaya in a circle of girls, and sounding beautiful all together.
* Going to the beach on the last night...having good conversations, witnessing craziness and Roxi telling me my theme song which is 'tale as old as time' from Beauty and the Beast. Other people got theme songs too.
*The emotion and thanksgiving that was in the open mic time. Then it made me all emotional. Hehe, I'm a little emo. Not really.

Just because I'm getting really, really bored

For some reason I was reminded of the underpants game - that one where you take wellknown sayings, titles or quotes and replace one of the words with the word underpants. Oh yes, its a classy game. It's a very fun game to play, anyway. I've realised that the titles of the Harry Potter books are particularly hilarious. I was laughing out loud just thinking about it.

* Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Underpants (or the underpants stone)
* Harry Potter and the Underpants of Secrets (or the chamber of underpants)
* Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Underpants (or the underpants of azkaban)
* Harry Potter and the Underpants of Fire (ooooooooooow - or the goblet of underpants)
* Harry Potter and the Order of the Underpants (or the underpants of the phoenix)
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Underpants (or the underpants prince)
* Harry Potter and the Deathly Underpants (or the underpants hallows)

Or Harry Underpants, or Underpants Potter...

Hehehehehe....ah, I am so bored. See, this is the kind of thing I think about if I'm left at home for too long. Yes, the underpants game is fun.

I love this song

We've started singing this song at church and it's one of my favourites at the moment.

What the Lord has done in me

Let the weak say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich
Let the blind say I can see, it's what the Lord has done in me

Hosanna, hosanna to the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna, Jesus died and rose again.

Into the river I will wade, there my sins are washed away
From the heavens mercy streams of the saviours love for me

I will rise from waters deep into the saving arms of God
I will sing salvation songs, Jesus Christ has set me free.

Hosanna, hosanna to the Lamb that was slain
Hosanna, hosanna, Jesus died and rose again.

Quality Christian fiction...?

I paid a visit to Koorong today, and as I looked at the fiction part of the store, I was reminded of the blog discussion of only a few posts ago. The one about the lack of quality Christian fiction. I don't know where you can find quality Christian fiction but it doesn't seem to be at Koorong. There are some excellent books at Koorong, about theology and general Christian living, but the fiction books there all seem to be lightweight romance. The kind of books that have a warm and fuzzy message but are generally superficial or have underdeveloped characters or are just badly written. I'm all for romantic subplots in books, but romantic fiction generally doesn't interest me, particularly if it is poorly written. I'm not sure its edifying to be presenting so much romantic literature anyway. Then again, I haven't read any of these books so I can't really say much about them. Maybe some of them are okay. But I'm looking for books that will challenge and interest me, both spiritually and intellectually. There has to be some good Christian fiction out there somewhere, right?

'Go Sean...it's your birthday....'

Hehe, Sean's party was crazy fun. There weren't that many people from CU there, just me, Roxi, Shan and Fiona...and Sean, of course :P Then there was one other person I knew from class, and the rest were Sean's school friends. Yes, they are incredibly crazy, particularly when they are drunk. And for any drunk people who wish to ring me, my mobile number is o4.

Sean had booked the Redoak for before dinner, but when everyone got there, we found it was closed. So we went to P.J. O'Brien's Irish pub, where I had my one alcoholic drink for the evening. Brilliant! By the time we got to the Teppanyaki restaurant, some people were already drunk, but the majority weren't so it was alright. Teppanyaki is fun, and I managed to catch most of the fried rice they threw at me, just a little bit got on my skirt. It was a black skirt so that was okay!

After dinner we went to this bar that apparently was supposed to be really good. When we got there, there were absolutely no people there, but that rocked cause it was like we had our own little private bar. And with cheap drinks, you can imagine some of the people got even crazier. I had a raspberry cordial with lemonade, which I think affected me more than the beer! We played pool and, just cause it was his birthday, Sean sunk a whole lot of balls and won the game. Then there was the singing I've had that stupid 50 cent, In Da club song in my head since then, but with the lyrics 'Go Sean..it's your birthday...and so on. Hehe, it's always fun to meet friends of friends, and now I know who those people in that inferno's email are. The people who hoped it would be a jacuzzi/stripper place.

Happy birthday Sean!!

Hope you've had a great day, my lovely, crazy chauffeur!


I've spent the whole day doing Tongan things. It was the opening of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations Tongan branch, so there was a big service at Auburn Uniting Church. I got to dress up in Tongan clothes, and thats always fun. The actual service ran very much to islander time. It started about half an hour late, and went for almost three hours. But the music was so good that it sort of didn't matter. I got really really bored in the sermon though, as it was in Tongan and I didn't understand what was going on. Tongan music is completely awesome though, particularly this choir that sang today. And after the service there were some Tongan dancers, including one girl from my church. Tongan stuff is cool...I am really blessed to be involved in their culture the way that I am.

Some things I've been thinking about recently...

I've been thinking about what kind of books Christians should read, and what kind of movies they should read. How can Christians engage in the media of this world and still remain holy? I know there are some differing ideas about this issue, from different theological perspectives. I'm not entirely sure why, but Harry Potter seems to be a big example, although this issue is certainly not limited to that. Books that feature violence or sex or magic or whatever it is.

Today Mum was warning some of the parents at church about letting their kids see Harry Potter. She explained that the Harry Potter movies were too scary for kids - which I completely agree with - and also said that they encourage witchcraft so are not good in that sense. That's one view, particularly about books and movies with magic in them. I suppose this idea comes from a more charismatic perspective, that emphasises the reality of the spiritual realm. Therefore, witchcraft and magic are real, dangerous things and reading about them opens you up to negative spirits. I don't exactly know if I agree with that.

Then there are other Christians who think its okay to read Harry Potter (just keeping with this example for the moment). Lots of people I know from CU, including you guys, hold to this perspective. And I know you guys are completely commited to God and are seeking holiness. I haven't heard much of the argument about this perspective, why it is okay for Christians to read Harry Potter and other such things. I've heard the arguments for the other perspective over and over again, so it would be cool if I could hear your ideas.

Hmmm...I hope this makes sense. It doesn't make that much sense in my head but it's something I've really been thinking about lately. I want to be holy in what I think about and read and watch, but it's pretty hard to work out what's okay and what's not. Is it more to do with the actual subject matter or the way you respond to it? Yeah, I don't really know.

Stine's blog

Stine has succumbed to procrastination and has got herself a blog...

http://stinetizzle.blogspot.com

It's going to have lots of pretty pictures, I'm assuming.

Taking inspiration from Em....

Things that I love

*Rain...particularly waking up to hear rain

* Cooking...I made shepherds pie for dinner tonight, it was good.

* Reading...at the moment I'm reading a book of Arthurian legend. Violence is funny when written in archaic language, lots of smiting

* My new computer

* Daisy...she found her way into my bedroom today (!?)

* Maddie...she sleeps on my bed all day

* Singing praise to God

* Being loved by God even though I do stupid things

* Cold nights and a big warm blanket

* The Simpsons...6:00 every night!

* Music

* My family even though they annoy me sometimes

* Jam and cordial (Maite works for Cottees now, so when I was over at their house, I was sent back with a big box of jam and cordial.....sugar overload)

* Church

...and I probably could go on. I'm feeling much better than I was this time last week. So many people have been getting sick recently, it's so not good. I pray that you all feel better soon. I'm still at home doing nothing. It kind of sucks living so far away from everyone during the holidays but I will see you all at MYC, hopefully sooner. And I got to see my church friends on Sunday. I haven't been to my home church for weeks, so it was awesome to see people. Fatai and I always manage to have good talks about the books we are reading. The sermon was awesome too - about being washed in the blood of Jesus, and about coming to him for forgiveness everytime we sin. And the music is awesome, as always.

Just in time for the holidays, I have come down with a flu. I've had a high temperature and a headache for a few days. Fortunately, I've been able to stay at home doing absolutely nothing, so I'm recovering kind of quickly. I got Zoolander on DVD for my birthday, so I've watched that. Funny stuff. Although with me, I'm never quite sure if I've fully recovered. It's hard to know. Hopefully I'll be all good for MYC. Some more useful advice: don't drink large amounts of apple and blackcurrant juice if you're feeling sick. I drank heaps cause I needed to keep my fluids up, and I threw it all up...and freaked out cause I was throwing up red stuff that I initially thought was blood. Yeah, not so good but pretty funny.

That was such a fun birthday dinner last night! Thanks to all who came and made it such a memorable, crazy evening.

My birthday apart from that was not particularly eventful. Lots of reading and crosswords and listening to loud music...all good. My first birthday that I didn't spend at home with my parents, I feel sort of grown up. But not really.

It really was great to have dinner with everyone. I had so much sugar that night, and I've had heaps more today aswell (eating those jellybeans Ali and Tom gave me). The packets of sugar were an interesting source of entertainment for me, Ben and Ali last night. Sugar is good...but I didn't get any where near breaking my record for the most packets eaten in one go. Maybe that's a good thing. Another hilarious moment was when I received a sweet-smelling deodorant from Michelle and Jo Dear, and I sprayed it around Ben's face. Hehe, Manda couldn't stop laughing after that. I also sprayed it around Sean and Shan so they smelled pretty, and also snuck up behind Pete and sprayed his newly shaved head. As a result, Pete said one of the funny quotes of the night...

Pete: You're 22. Grow up!

There were some other interesting conversations, particularly about whether the queen farts in public, and also Shan's pirate impersonations. After everyone left the restaurant and most people went home, Sean and Shan helped me carry all my stuff back to my room, and they stayed at college for a little while. Just imagine those two guys in my room trying on hats and dancing around. Hehe, completely random. Then we played pingpong...fun fun fun. Unfortunately, Shan had to get home early again so they couldn't hang around for too long.

Thankyou all for my lovely presents. I love the hat and the scarf...very nice and matching! And I've already written 4 pages in my pretty journal, all about this magical evening, hehe. The jelly beans are nearly almost gone (also thanks to my sister who came to visit today) and thankyou, Ali and Tom, for the book and the mug. There were some funny messages in the birthday cards aswell. Mum was looking at them today and she wondered what Matt meant when he wrote 'keep being yourself...except when you're around fire'. Then there were the amusing emo references from both Sean and Shan, typically. But the prize for the funniest card absolutely goes to Katie. Mr Box, Mr Chart and the Transport Minister...they were all there, as was Katie's full title. And Stine gave me her present today - Carl Barron and Ross Noble DVDs...hehe, I'm going to be giggling myself stupid tonight!

I'm on holidays!! My exam this morning was full-on. The type of exam that it was meant that I had to identify grammatical elements and make up charts even *before* I could start writing the actual answer - so it was a *lot* of writing. But still I finished early. Partly cause I didn't particularly know what the last question was about. But that's okay. Afterwards I hung around with Roxi and Sean in the caf for a little while, and now I'm planning to read all afternoon - I have about 100 pages left so I should be able to finish my book! I want to finish it today so I can start reading something new tomorrow.

So excited! Holidays now and birthday tomorrow!!

Kate's party was fun fun fun! Naturally, I got excited seeing all the hats...and I tried on most of them through the course of the evening. Some extra-funky hats included Helen's feathery, colourful result of procrastination and Tom's uni-notes hat...and Jenny's hat, and Shan's hat, and Doug's hat, and Ali's hat, and Katherine's hat, and Manda's hat, and...oh, so many hats...so exciting! And Sean looked like an army fisherman, hehe.

If seeing all those hats in such a small space wasn't exciting enough, just as the party started there was a blackout. It started to look like Kate was going to have another murder mystery party after all. Then the candles were brought out onto all the tables...and candles mean fire! Playing with fire is amusing. But I'm not a pyromaniac, really I'm not. The lights came back on throughout the party, but in my opinion that wasn't as fun. At least I could see what I was eating, though. Who would have thought strawberries and cream cheese would be so good?

As usual, craziness was everywhere. Some particular highlights I remember:

* Doug, Sean and Shan's Irish accents while lamenting the lack of pints of Guinness at this party.

* Shan's accents in general (changing depending on what hat he was wearing), and his air guitar...hehe, he's very crazy

* Ben coming dressed as Charlie Chaplin - that was cool, although he looked just slightly overdressed for this party.

*Ali, Katherine and Manda singing while sitting on the kitchen floor.

*The complete crowdedness in the Teahouse...as it was too cold and dark to go outside.

Yay, so I have one more exam on Monday morning and then I'm finished! And I'm looking forward to Tuesday. This will be my first birthday that I don't spend with my parents, so that will be sort of interesting...but I get to see all you guys so it's okay!!! And I see my parents on Wednesday anyway. I think I must go study now...but, I shall leave you with an interesting quote from Stine

'If the throneroom is what I think it is, then Metamucil must be the drink of kings'

I thought of an idea for the greatest generic kids action movie ever....

Pirate Dinosaurs

Yes, it's confirmed. I'm mad, hehehe. Does anyone want to go see Pirate Dinosaurs with me?

Happy 21st birthday, Katus!!!

I think the pressure of exams is manifesting itself in strange ways at college (think in the same way as Katus and I with the little green frog). This evening, instead of studying, I played a hilarious game of pingpong....exceptionally bad playing but lots of hysterical laughter. Ah, its good!

I'm really trying to procrastinate at the moment. My next and final exam is on Monday, so theoretically I have lots of time to study. But, knowing me, I will probably put it off until late....but I really do need to study for this one. I've looked through some past papers today and they are hard. Grammar analysis is not the most fun thing in the world...I get experiential meaning but the intertextual and interpersonal completely elude me. If you understood that last sentence, maybe you can help me! This exam is worth 50% so I really do have to study. Yeah, I think it will be okay.

Hey, someone's shining a torch into the computer room...as if I wasn't distracted enough as it is! Reading is also incredibly distracting. When I reflect upon the fact that I read approximately 70 pages a day, and study a lot less than that, I wish for holidays. Some advice...don't start reading an interesting but irrelevant-to-your-course 900 page book during exam time, unless you want to procrastinate. But yeah, I kind of do want to procrastinate, even though I know I shouldn't : P

Less than a week till my birthday...wow, 22 sounds really old. But, then again, my age will be a palindrome. That hasn't happened since I was 11.

Finished my EDUC260 exam! And finished the whole subject :) The exam was actually pretty easy, well, most of it was anyway. Now I have almost a week to study for my next exam....and my birthday is in one week! And another thing, I bought a new hat to wear to Katus' party - it's quite mad.

Yay, time for a Pollyanna post...haven't had one for a while. Get ready for pointform!

* RMC end of semester dinner - it was great to see the dining hall looking fancier than usual, and having something other than chicken and rice. The dessert was really good, berry sauce, yoghurt and pear. I sat with my really good college friends, and got in lots of photos. It's a bit sad, though, that some of the people I met this semester will be leaving to go back home (mostly America) in only a few weeks. But I'm sure we will keep in touch.

* Belly dancing - after the end of semester dinner, I hung around in the c-block common room with some friends, and instead of going to the ranch like other people, we had our own little dance party in Rym's room. She's Algerian, so she shared some of her culture and taught us all how to belly dance. That was so much fun, but I'm sure we looked really silly :P

* Being home - it's crazy and Mum's not feeling well, so I have to look after her a bit, but it is nice to actually be at home for more than 2 days. I actually get to cook! I go back to college Wednesday this week.

* Reading - at the moment I'm reading a novel about Irish history, mostly about Catholic/Protestant tensions...very interesting stuff. And that book's 900 pages, so it should keep me entertained for a while. Reading while sitting on the trampoline is lovely.

* Cold nights - sleeping with three blankets! So much fun.

I hope everyone has fun studying for exams. I'm currently researching stuff for my take home exam due on Thursday. Fun fun fun.

Aarr, I'm supposed to be writing my essay thats due tomorrow, but I'm been having lots of fun procrastinating. I watched Shrek 2 (yay, can't wait to see Shrek 3), and I played with Daisy for a little bit. I actually have done a bit of my essay, though. It's only 1000 words but I have no idea how to write 1000 words for a grammar analysis.

Really, though. I've been reading through some blogs, and it seems that people are going through hard times, or have just come through stuff. I don't know all the details about things, but I do love all my friends with a fierce affection so I am praying for all of you. It's really hard to recognise things within yourself that need to change - and I have those things too. I think I need to be a bit more responsible, and stop taking things for granted. And I've got to read the bible way more than I have been recently. But, my lovely friends, don't change too much. I thank God so much for you guys, for the way you are all so supportive and committed to God. And crazy. That's a good thing.

I really need to go back to writing my essay.

Mmm, things kind of suck at the moment. First of all, I'm sick. I've got a really sore throat, a headache, a sniffly nose and a unsettled stomach. Not fun. The worst bit about that is I don't know how long its going to be like that for. I don't want another long term sickness, but I can't imagine getting better anytime soon. Then there's stuff with me and Sean, I don't know whats going on with that. I really do like him. And I'm living at college, and at the moment there aren't many opportunities to actually talk to people. Lots of time for round the world ping pong and laughing in large groups, but I kind of feel more like sitting down quietly with good friends and talking. Right at the moment, though, I feel like sleeping.

Still, God is good.