I guess I am glad that I have something to give. I am starting to acccept more that people ask for my help because they actually like the finished product, not just because I have tbe best tools for it.
4 different jobs today alone. I start thinking I could charge for this & I might make a little extra college-cash. A rare thing, but also a tough one, cause most of the guys here are poorer than I am by a fair whack.
You know, I still enjoy taking photos and I think I am coming to enjoy it more and more the more I do it. I think I should give up trying to explain the appeal of it anyway. It’s just one of those things that makes sense to me.
Of course, I am aware of my limitations. I only have to look at flickr.com and I can see a hundred people who are better than me. Who capture that moment, find that angle, flip that perspective…. but it really doesn’t have to matter that much. In the world of SMBC I am loved an appreciated. two different people in the US told me that they were going to buy frames for pictures I sent them in the mail. Several missionaries use my portraits on their support brochures & I was stoked that two of my good friends wanted to use my pictures for their wedding invite!
I think I may have quoted Eric Liddel before. I think I need to make his most famous quote a little mantra to bring me back to reality. I should be so thankful that others appreciate what I do. That I can be a service to them is a great thing, so I should be willing to give it freely, and after all, “When I am running, I feel His pleasure”..

“L”, one of my little photo projects today. It’s great that his parents came back and asked me to take some more pics for them, 6 months down the track.

I’ve got some ideas for things I would love to blog about. Of course, it is only natural that I be thinking of things I want to blog about when I don’t actually have any real time to write anything. It takes time to fashhion something worth while & time is a scarce commodity at the moment.
I am looking forward to the 22nd of Nov. with great anticipation!
In the mean time, I have been burning the candle at both ends as I fit in study, social stuff and work. Friday night was spent at Youth Group (as usual) but, rather than drive home, I ended up having beers with Kirsty at my fave pub (The Great Northern). Having walked her home, I fully intended to head home myself, before she pulled out the trump card (also known as “Batmaan Begins”, a movie I had not yet seen had been told I had to see).
3:30am, get back home. Not the ideal move to promote a big study day the next day.
Today was Youth Church (great kids) and then study during the day, though I ended up snoozing for an hour on the floor in the office. The sermon was a good one tonight, on 1 Cor 14, and the night was topped off with the return of Shannyn from NZ.
OK, so an early nights sleep to start of my final week of lectures for the year. It sounded like a great idea, but I had to get ready for a test on Psalms tomorrow, then I remembered that I am leading the prayer group for the Persecuted church tomorrow morning too! So here I am again. 12:54… back on the blog trying to unwind a little before I score 6 or 7 hours of sleep & get up ready for another long day tomorrow.
One weird thing is that I am loving it. Loving it all!

I offered to fill in for Daz Man, teaching scripture to his 6th grade kids for the last term. It was a good idea! I love getting to chat to the kids & it is great to be in a classroom & stuff. Getting kids to think abou things & building relationships and all that Jazz. The class starts at 9:30 on Friday morning, so that means I have to get up at like 7:30 if I am going to get out there in plenty of time & get my game-face on. There goes my sleep-in day during the week. Sometimes good ideas can also be bad ideas.
Case in point
I got a message from Kirsty yesterday asking if I wanted to go see a movie that night. Of course, I had youth group, so I had to say no, but I might be free afterwards (a good idea to let people know that you are actually keen to hang out with them). Of course, then she texts me back & says that is great. We can go for a late beer & then watch a DVD at her place!
Catching up with Kirt? Great idea. She is a champ & we get on like a house on fire. Watchinig movies that start at about 12:30, meaning you get home at 3:30… bad idea when Saturday is a study day.
So it is up at 11am, then spending a little time chatting on MSN, and here I sit, now, ready to get some work done.
But it is sunny and warm outside, on nice days like this, even an awesome thing like studying the subject you love most can seem like a bad idea…

It is 1am, I am about to head to bed & it is 26 degrees (that is 78 for your Americans out there). Summer weather has arrived.

Strong Bad might have felt like he didn’t need Pecs because he was “AA”, but “All Abs” is not the only “AA” answer. There are any number of other answers you could give, “Alcoholics Annonymous”, “Amy & Andrew“, or “Arbitrary Answers” would fit too. Ansel Adams is also an viable answer. On this occasion Ansel Adams is also the correct answer…. that is, if the question was “who made the following quote?”

“Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and boundares, shape destinies and societies; but the compelling foce of all times has been the foce of originality and creation profoundly affecting the roots of the human spirit”
We all want to press our fingerprints into other peoples lives don’t we. That proof that we are unique & add something irreplaceable to the world around us. We may not even want other people to be able to notice it, but secretly we find comfort in knowing that the mark might be there, like initials in wet cement.
I wonder though, what drives this force. Is it the need to apply those gifts that God has lavished upon his people, or is it something darker? Is that drive at the “root of the human spirit” that of sin itself? Do we want to see ourselves on the dais, glorified before the people. Are we inflated and driven with our need to proove our self-worth? A pride that says we are incomparable? Rather than glorifying God through the gifts he has given us, we seek to use those gifts to declare outselves God?
Something for you to think about as you drift off to sleep tonight as you drift off to sleep.
“He must become greater; I must become less.” –> John 3:30

“Living in the moment”. A lovely post-modern kind of phrase. I’m not doing it too well right now. My body is firmly in the present, but my mind is somewhere around 9:30PM on November 21st.
I’m looking forward to being done with these exams. I’m looking forward to being extravigant with my leisure time. I can’t wait to wake at 10am, look across at the clock & then decide to go back to bed.
I’m also looking forward to some pretty fun social events. Any pretense of being able to call myself a “young adult” will be gone mid-November, when the big Three Oh hits.
My brother (in Christ) Timmy D. marries Christy in December, so that means New Zealand for the wedding! That also means a couple of weeks of driving around NZ & checking out what there is to be checked out…
I’m looking forward to reading when I want to read. Maybe getting back into the beach. Being able to hang out with the dudes at church.
And sleep, blessed sleep.
I miss sleep most of all…
“Leisure is a quality of spirit, not a quantity of time” → Eugene Peterson

So my love of certain aspects of American culture is documented. I love the burger joint & I once wrote about the Plethora of options available to the burger connoisseur. I am pretty sure I also posted a picture of some “Stewarts Key Lime Soda” that we had, whilst hanging out at a cafe in Kansas City.
This is a conversation I also had with some of the “Cedarville Singers”, a group from Cedarville Uni in Ohio, who came to my church (and some others) to do mission. It was also a conversation, apparently, that Lyndell remembered, resulting in a 4-pack arriving on my doorstep today!!!!
It turns out that Lyndell had a friend coming to Melbourne, so she gave the bottles to her & got them to post them from here (It would be WAY too costly to do it from the US). MOST impressive!!!
And also most tasty. 1 down, three yet to enjoy…..
Thanks Lyndell, and also Chrissy who I think I neglected to thank formally on my site when the two of you sent me some goodies earlier.
Reciprocity shall be exacted!

Clava Cairns. Culloden, Scotland.
You know, it is just shy of a year since I was standing at the Clava Cairns taking this picture. Man, time goes quickly!

Finishing an assignment after far to long.
Waking up to winds that were so rough, that some guys thought the dorm might get blown over…
Making my own T-shirt that said “I shot the Deputy!” on it. (It got the popular vote over my preferred option, the slightly criptic “Can I be your Boaz?”)
Having two worlds colide. College and old friends, both at a party.
Preaching a sermon that involved the phrases “The chicken or the Egg” and “how do you play Marco Polo with God?”

Doing the hard yards with the word to prep for the sermon.

The look of a man who is both tired and relieved…

I love a multicultural country and I love a multicultural college!
Jacqui asked me what I was doing for lunch today & I said that I could be up for going somewhere quick. When 1pm rolled around, we found that we had a group of 4 (Prilz and Mike joined the gang), so we decided to head to Burwood for some Yum Cha!
OK, I love Chinese food to start with, and Yum Cha is the coolest, cause you never know what is in half the little dishes that the people bring around, but the coolest of all is going to Yum Cha with two people who speak Cantonese! Jacq and Prilz had the downlow on everything, so we avoided the “traps for young players”, (also known as Spring rolls… “Such an Anglo-Chinese thing” I was told) and got to get down to the real deal!
One of my lifes goals was achieved when I got to try Chickens Feet! OK, so most peoples goals revolve around fulfilling careers, kids and making the first million, while mine rotate around edible avian appendages. Some might think that a little weak, but I think it is important! I like the thought that I can give just about anything a try. The concept of eating chook-foot is alien to my sensibilities, so if I can ignore that, then that is a powerful thing. a) Why let my western view control me, and b) how could 2 billion Chinese be wrong?
As it turns out, I don’t particularly like the taste of Chickens feet, mainly because I don’t really like meat off the bone & they are pretty much all bone & gristle!
The lunch was superb, and the afternoon was made when Jacq generously shouted us, then Prilz bought us all an egg-custard tart for desert (Mum, if you are reading, I know you are jealous now, even if you weren’t at the thought of chook-foot.).
Otherwise, there is very little to report. I have tried to keep myself locked in my room doing essay stuff & prep for a sermon on Sunday, and I have occasionally strayed to the closest TV to see Australia V. The Rest of the World team in Cricket.
OK, back to work….