Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Some seasonal YouTube goodness...

Doesn't it just feel like this sometimes?

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Musings

My brother had a big long name for his blog posts like this. It did a really funny pair of posts, actually, about different church types. Sadly, I am not as witty as him, nor am I as talented a writer (see that, brother? I complimented you!).

But I felt that as I had an interesting experience at a church a couple of weeks ago I should blog about it. I did write the experience up in my notebook/diary, after all.

We went to a church in the downtown area of Edmonton. I think it was very inventively named 'City Centre Church'. The service was held in an old movie theatre. This immediately set my spider senses buzzing. As much as I want to see churches rip out their pews and get rid of the bus-ride style setting, services held in repurposed venues always make me think 'hipster'. I can't help it.

Also, there was a band on stage, up the front, not off to one side. Front and centre. It's not really my thing. I think a band should be there to help people worship rather than being the focus of the gathering.

And yet, I heard a little nagging voice...don't you hate those? It was telling me to let go of my preconceptions and just go with it. And you know what? It wasn't bad. It was actually pretty good. I didn't know a lot of the music, because I forget how much of the stuff we sing in church at home is actually Australian. But it didn't really matter, even if it wasn't easy to pick up. The words were actually good. Not like a lot of the theologically unsound I generally associate with that kind of crowd. And they played 'Majesty (Here I am) by Delirious. I knew that a bit. So that was good.

And the preaching was good. And not all about 'hey, give us your money'. It was on Ecclesiastes, something a lot of preachers I know avoid like the plague. But it was great. It was pure simple good message. I was surprised.

And then I realised how sad it is to be surprised to hear good preaching in a church. Is it just me being cynical? Is there any good reason for me to be so cynical? If I let go of preconceptions and the preaching was rubbish, would I still be asking these mostly retorical questions?

I don't want to be cynical about the church. I guess being cynical about people in general doesn't help. I just wish I didn't feel like a lot of the time that cynicism is deserved.

I'm not sure if this post makes sense. It seems lying in bed blogging leads to ramble and nonsence. Who knew?

Monday, September 6, 2010

St Paul 's Letter to the Electorates: Chapter 8

For those among you still waiting, as I am, for an election result...


i. And it was written that on the day before the Sabbath
the people would gather together in a public place and accept burnt
offerings, tip tomato sauce down their fronts, cast their votes and
return to their homes. And when the darkness had fallen, and after they
had uncorked their evening meal and begun to engage in wassail, there
came the sound of a great counting.

ii. And as the counting advanced there emerged a pattern,
and it was like unto that established by Noah. For the votes came in two
by two, one of each kind with one each of the other kind, until the Ark
was full.

iii. For the people had chosen equally, and by close of
play neither Julia nor Anthony could rule in the land. And so it was
that the result hung in the scales of balance for many days and many
nights, and was undecided.

iv. And calls were made to the uttermost parts of the land,
including to Solomon, who was wise, for this would make a nice change.

v. And there were those who lacked dependence, but gaineth
much, and were not part of the tribes of neither Julia nor Anthony. And
they carryeth all before them in the counting and were victorious, each
in his area and after his kind. And they were agreed on one issue. And
it was Barnaby. For they haveth no time for same.

vi. And they were courted by the Julianites and the
Anthonites, yea, even as the counting was done.

vii. And the scribes looked at the figures and they all
agreed that they had seen it coming, and were not surprised, and had
predicted exactly this result, for it was always on the cards and was
inevitable for the following reasons, which they listed. For the scribes
see all things, and hear all things, and know all things.

viii. But one factor sneaketh up even upon the scribes. For
Bob, who was Brown and who was also Green, turneth out not only to
control the senate but to have a big romp downstairs as well. For those
who were Green had gone forth and multiplied. And this was a feature of
proceedings.

ix. And after a time, late in the evening of the counting,
Julia came forth and spoke to the multitude, and they called her name.
And although she had suffered losses in all parts of the country, she
calmeth the people, and pointeth out that according to law she was still
the caretaker leader, or janitor.

x. And Anthony came forth also and the multitude called
also his name, and his wife’s name, for the wassail was well in hand by
this stage and the people were up for anything they could dance to.

xi. And Anthony acknowledged his triumph, and explained how
he had done this remarkable thing.

xii. And this was unusual. For he had not won.

xiii. And Kevin spoke also, and as is indicated in the form
guide, he spoke for some time and was fulsome in his praise for his own
efforts and for his many qualities. And the people were pleased to see
him up and about again, although this was a good time to put the kettle on.

xiv. And Bob, who was Brown, calleth it a victory for those
who were Green. And it was so. And Bob was most excited, and fighteth
the urge to pull his top up over his head and run around the field with
outstretched arms.

xv. For there was a large swing to Bob.

xvi. And there was another swing which was even bigger than
Bob’s swing, and it was swing to informality. And those with long white
beards stroked them at this point, saying ‘Yikes. A great many of the
people have lost interest in these matters’.

xvii. And messengers were sent out by the Julianites and
the Anthonites to their imaginary friends at the Oakshottery, and in the
House of Windsor and among the Kattermites. And they were experienced,
and they understood, and were responsible, and they all spoke of the
need for stable government. And the leaders agreed, saying ‘Absolutely.
Now, how about some steak knives?’

xviii. And the people waited, for there was nothing else
to do, and they were getting quite good at it.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

So. Canada. Eh.

So. I'm in Canada. You can read about it here

It's awesome.

You know what else is awesome? These two youtube clips. Go ahead. Knock yourself out.





Check out Gerald's blog, people!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Coming Soon...

Yes, OK, I haven't really blogged much lately. I've been busy getting ready to go overseas for 5 months.

I'm still trying to decide whether I will set up a separate travel blog or just use this one. I'm also trying to decide what will be my mascot for my time away. Both of these are difficult decisions...

The options for the mascot are as follows

A bear dressed as a possum
A bear decorated with the Australian flag
A bear called 'Lollipop' - a few of you may understand the significance of that one...
Julian the stuffed dog with no nose from Barcelona (would add a nice international flavour...)
A dalek, or collection thereof...
Various other small plastic villains from Doctor Who, or indeed the Doctor himself...
A Coopers dark ale monkey

You see the difficulty I am having?

So, what would you the reader most like to see travelling all over Canada? And should said mascot have its own blog?

Comment away, my three faitful readers...

Monday, June 28, 2010

An Observation

I've noticed something a little odd and quite disturbing.

I'm much more likely to forgive my cat than I am to forgive a person.

My cat bites me occasionally. She scratches. She ignores me and hates my friends, and runs away and hides everytime we have anyone around. She also has this really annoying habit of standing in her litter tray and doing her business over the edge which leads to some serious mess that needs to be cleaned up.

And yet, I can never stay mad at her for more than about 30 seconds. All she has to do is look at me with her greeny-yellow eyes and purr a bit, and I melt. She's so soft and cuddly and cute, how could anyone not just adore her?

And yet, if some of my best human friends acted in this way, would I just put up with it because they're cute? Some of them are pretty cute! But if my best friend suddenly bit me, ignored me, hated my friends and defecated in my bathroom, would I still love her? Would it take only thirty seconds to forgive her?

Sure, it's harder to understand the reasons for a person's behaviour than a cat's. But surely we shouldn't have to understand a person's motives to forgive them. Forgiveness, like love, should be unconditional, right?

So I'm thinking the way I (and, I think, many others. I just don't want to make assumptions so I've written this whole blog post like it's just about me...) forgive my kitty is almost a model of the way God forgives us. We, being human and fallible, find it hard to practice this model of perfect forgiveness in our relationships with humans. Perhaps then it is comforting that there is still something in my life over which I can exercise God's will for me, to forgive perfectly and completely with no need for explanation.

Only, it's a cat. I'm pretty sure that's not what God intended...

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

dang it

I wrote a big long blog post about feelings and stuff. And then accidentally deleted half of it. My bad.

Why is it when that happens I can never be bothered to write it again?

It was about the things that I have realised in the past few months. To summarise.

I hated my previous job and I don't want to be a scientist.

You can't change the past

The people who love me are awesome

I can be whatever the hell I want to be and I can do amazing things if I put my mind to it. The naysayers can go to hell. I can be awesome and I can't just sit around wishing I was as awesome as other people.

Amazing things may include: Going to Canada for 5 months (actually, there's no 'may' about this, I've booked my flights), studying design and possibly architecture, saying 'screw you' to anyone who thinks I can't or shouldn't.

That writing long blog posts about this kind of thing is cathartic.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Update on Logiesgate

Apparently when I posted yesterday I only had half the story. Another comedian by the name of Catherine Deveny has also gotten herself in hot water with people with no sense of humour

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/05/2890855.htm?site=thedrum

Only she got fired because of it.

GAH what is with you, Australia? Get over yourselves. And seriously, why the hell can't we make fun of Bindi Irwin? The kid asks for it.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

On Humour, Wil Anderson, and Twitter

So I've been out the last couple of nights and hadn't caught up on all the uproar that Wil Anderson has apparently cause post-Logies.

For my foreign readers, let me, like the good debater I was in school, define the topic. 'The Logies' are sort of like Australia's Emmy awards, except only some of the awards actually got to people who are good. There are 'most outstanding' awards which go to people who can actually act, and a lot of them go to shows and actors no one watched/has heard of. Then, there are the 'most popular' awards which go to soap opera stars and occasionally awesome people like Shaun Micallef.

'Wil Anderson' is an Australian comedian. He also does things like host TV shows which intelligent people watch. He's actually a better host than he is comedian, in my opinion. I don't really like his style of stand-up, mostly because he usually sounds like he's taken a ton of speed before getting up there. But he's amusing and I will defend him to the death because he hosted The Glasshouse.

So, apprently, you weren't allowed to tweet at the Logie awards. For the uninitiated, 'to tweet' is a verb which describes the act of posting 140 character messages on the website Twitter. But Wil decided he would, in an act of anti-establishment defiance, or something. And he said somethings about some people that were...well...less than flattering? You can read them here http://twitter.com/Wil_Anderson

Lots of people I'm sure have had a lot of things to say. By the sounds of it, both A Current Affair and Today Tonight have laid into him. Colour me surprised [/sarcasm]

Then I read this article
http://justinhamilton.com.au/node/123

It basically sums up what I think. I know I sat at home on Sunday night and made fun of the celebrities on the red carpet. I even tweeted what I thought of the more horrendous dresses. But I'm not famous so apparently I'm allowed to. But Wil Anderson, who everyone knows is opinionated and maybe a little bit rude isn't.

Australia, grow up. Ooh, mean old Wil said something bad about your favourite soap opera star. The face that you even have a favourite soap opera star makes me think you have bigger problems in the world. The fact that Josh Thomas said hilarious and true things about Justin Bieber's hair makes you hate him. When did we turn into a country with no sense of humour who takes offence at everything? Why are we now a country who went into melt down because Justin Bieber was here for three days?

In short, when, and how the hell, did we turn into America? And why didn't I get the memo?

Americans, please don't take offence. As individuals, you're great. As a country you can be a little infuriating. And it's not really that I don't like you. I just don't think we should BE you, because we are, in fact, Australian. Or so I thought.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

My Brother

My brother just posted something awesome on his blog. You should read it.

http://gw2rs.blogspot.com/2010/05/games-people-play.html

He very accurately sums up the thoughts of a large number of single people. And gives an insight into what it is actually like to have a conversation with him. You can see why sometimes we have incredible screaming matches when we live in the same house.

Love you, Gaz.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Outrage! Or something

Over the last few days I've seen all sorts of people get up in arms about the new changes to the facebook privacy settings, or some such. There's supposedly something we all have to opt out of unless we want the evil empire to own our lives and credit card details. Or something.

Here's the thing, people. I don't see the point of whinging and moaning about privacy when you put your whole life on the internet anyway. You give up a certain amount of your privacy the moment you join a social networking site. You give some nameless corporation your name and location. If you can't accept that, well, perhaps you should have thought about that before you joined.

Perhaps we all should have.

We can't all yell and scream and complain about facebook. Or myspace, or whatever brand of social networking you prefer. Because we made it happen. We joined in our droves and made the creators of these sites millionaires. Our own voyeurism and the need to feel like someone cares about our existense has fed these machines. The only people who have any right to complain about social networking sites taking over our lives are people who don't use them.

And then, well, they probably have no idea what they are talking about. In which case, they should go into politics as it seems they would be in good company.

Oh, and by the by, I went into my privacy options to uncheck this supposedly heinous new infrigement on our privacy. It was already unchecked. I did not have to opt out, because I had never opted in and apparently facebook didn't see the need to opt me in either. So what was the fuss about in the first place, anyway?

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Where I'm At

It's funny now, reading over my old blog posts, and realising they very succinctly capture the goings on of the last few months. How did I write some of those things and not realise there was something going on in my head?

To be honest, though, looking back I probably knew deep down what was wrong with me. I definitely knew I had issues with anxiety. The diagnosis of depression was a bit of a surprise at the time, but now I think about it, it shouldn't have been.

In case you hadn't heard and haven't realised by now, yes, I've had a rough few weeks. Recovering from depression is a long journey. But things are definitely looking up. I'm thinking about new vocations and new adventures. I'm going to travel. I'm going to go back to Uni and study some more (and I know you're all looking forward to THOSE blog posts). I'm going to do some of the things that I've been putting off because I never had time.

My journey will probably feature in a few blog posts, because I think mental health is still something we don't talk about enough. We see it as a our own private battle and that's fine, but if you don't talk about it, other people can't help you. And if no one knows where you've been, they can't ask you for help either.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Watch This Space

I have had so many ideas for blog posts racing around my head that I don't know where to start.

So bear with me, and brace yourself for a sudden onslaught of frenzied blogging.

Laptop is still broken, sadly. Well, actually, I had it back for a week but realised it wasn't really fixed after all and took it back again.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Technical difficulties

Hello, faithful readers

Tosh, my faithful laptop, has been having fevers and fainting spells (read: she overheats and then crashes), so until she gets better don't expect many posts...cause I post so regularly and all.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Apologies

To the three people who actually might read this.

I apologise for a sad lack of posting just recently. I've had 2 colds in the last 6 weeks, I have a slightly twisted vertebrae in my neck which is playing havoc with my sanity and my bank account, and I just generally haven't felt like sharing.

I'm really really really hoping to feel healthy again soon, but that will probably happen just in time for work to crazy insane busu again.

Also, I'm boring. This is also something I would like to change.

Thanks for stopping by,
Rachel

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one laughs at God when the doctor calls
After some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
when it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from that party yet

No one laughs at God when their airplane
Starts to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love hand in hand
with someone else and they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God when the cops knock on their door
And they say “We’ve got some bad new, sir,”
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine, fire or flood

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
When the crazies say he hates us
and they get so red in the head
You think that they’re about to choke
God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus

God can be so hilarious
Ha ha, ha ha

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
when they’ve lost all they got
And they don’t know what for

No one laughs at God on the day they realize
that the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re saying their goodbyes

But God can be funny
At a cocktail party while listening to a good God-themed joke or
When the crazies say he hates us and they get so red in the head
you think that they’re about to choke
God can be funny
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie
Who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious

No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God in a hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war

No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor

No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all “laughing with God”


--'Laughing With', Regina Spektor

Monday, January 18, 2010

On mystery novels

I haven't done very well so far at my repeat attempt to read a book a week. So far this year I've finished two books...which sounds great, except I had actually started them before the end of last year. One of them I started in October...so...it's not as good as it sounds.

However, I am endeavouring to keep up the pace, and have started reading 'The Tiger in the Well' by Philip Pullman.

And wow.

Seriously. It is the third book in the Sally Lockhart Mysteries series. I hadn't realised after reading the first two how good they are. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy them. But I already had a basic undertsanding of what was going to happen because the first two have been made into TV movies which I watched, mostly out of curiousity to see Matt Smith at work. And so I didn't realise that they completely suck you in. I am only about 110 pages in to The Tiger in the Well and I'm impatient to know what happens. I want to know how it all works out and I've got about 300 pages to go...which is surely the sign of a good mystery. You want to be thinking the whole time, trying to work out what's going on and who the villain is.

Which is largely different to my previous experience with mystery novels. Because mostly I have only read the 'Bones' books by Kathy Reichs. The first few were totally gripping until you realise she writes the same book again and again with mild variations. And makes a killing doing it, so all power to her. But there's not really any suspense after you've read a few because you learn to pick who the bad guy is because of a certain pattern. The book I'm reading now, though, you think you know who the bad guy is, but you know there's something more than what it appears. There's foreshadowing to give a hint as to who might be behind it all, but you can't be sure it's not just mentioning events in previous books.

And after all that, these are meant to be books for teenagers. Seriously. I found them in the teen section of Dymocks. I'm getting old enough that it just feels dodgy to hang around that section. And it's a shame because these are not books for kids. Sure, I would have lapped them up when I was 16, but I think I appreciate them more now than I would have then.

To sum up. This was a long rambly blog post which basically can be summarised by the fact that I like this book and am enjoying reading it. Consider this sucker REVIEWED!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

An Open Letter

Dear Christians Who Are Slightly More Evangelical Than Me

I often feel bad that my faith is not as open as yours. That all of the people I work with don't necessarily know about my faith. I don't like to say I'm ashamed of my faith. Because I'm not really. Mostly it's because it doesn't come up and I'm not about to force my God down anyone's throat, because that's a waste of time.

Sometimes I think maybe I should be more open about it, though.

And then I remember why I'm not.

Because if I was, I would undoubtedly get tarred with the same brush as this utter twat.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/999572/televangelist-claims-haiti-made-pact-
(blogger seems to be broken, you'll have to copy and paste the link...)

All of the explectives in the word can't describe my distaste of this man and the things he is saying. I want to somehow rip through the fabric of reality and tear his throat out for being such a miserable example of a loving grace-filled God. Sure, my violent desires aren't really loving or grace-filled. But I'm not speaking for an entire religion, I'm just speaking for myself.

So until people stop being twats, I'm going to stick with my 'christian but not that sort of christian' categorisation.

I hope you can understand. If not, well, truth is I don't really care.

Yours,
Rachel

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

big ol' revelation

I had a bit of a realisation last week. I might not be the heartless *chooseyourownexpletive* that I sometimes think I am.

Don't get me wrong. I can be sharp. I can be blunt. I can be downright sarcastic, and I defintely have more than my fair share of cynicism. And because of this I sometimes think people think stuff just bounces off me and I'm fine.

Truth is, I think I feel other people's pain and hurt more than I feel my own. A couple of things happened last week; a schoolmate of mine was killed in an electrical accident, and a friend from uni lost her father to a sudden, unexpected brain bleed. And I felt so sad. Sad for a person I haven't seen in years, sad for his family. Sad for a friend who I usually think of a funny ditzy blonde. Just so so so so sad. I felt sad that people I knew were sad. And yet when things happen to those close to me, like when my grandfather died, I just sort of keep going with something close to numbness than sadness.

I'm not really sure what this actually means. But I think it's a good thing to realise about myself regardless.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Hmm

You know, I complain a lot. I don't always stop to appreciate the good things. And to be fair, the 'aughts' have not been a happy decade for me. Well...OK, probably more good things happened than bad, if I'm honest. But the bad things were so horrendous that they tend to cast a shadow over the good things.

But this morning at church the sermon basically boiled down to the fact that we need to embrace joy. We need to actively seek out joy and reasons to be joyful. That struck me. I'm usually content to wallow a bit. But I need to remember that joy is a state of mind and not really something you feel.

I think my real resolution for 2010 and indeed the next decade is to try and remember that joy and not just feel sorry for myself.

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainty that just to be alive is a grand thing - Agatha Christie

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Elsewhere on teh interwebs

I found this



It almost makes this year's pop music seem cool. Too bad most of the performers in the video don't have the talent that the MashUp artist clearly has in his left pinky...

Friday, January 1, 2010

Welcome to the much debated new decade

Yes, that's right, it's 2010. Seems weird to write that. People are debating about whether it is a new decade. Silly people. Surely a decade is just a period of 10 years, so really every new year could be a new decade if people had a little imagination. They're also arguing about what the decade will be called. Because apparently we have left the 'naughties' behind. I'm pretty sure the term 'naughties' is not quite as wide spread as people think, and that it only caught on in the last few years of the decade anyway. And I still hear/see people refer to exactly the same years as 'the aughts'.

So, in typical Rachel fashion, I would like to tell the media to get the freak over themselves. Not that they're going to listen to one girl typing on a blog that no one reads. But I've said it. That's something.

Also, I managed not to blog for the entirety of December. Oops. I think I wrote so much in November (50,000 words, yo) that I couldn't be bothered. But it is a new year and I will endeavour to blog.

The latter half of 2009 brought about an epic fail on my part. Yes, I said I would aim to read a book a week. No, I didn't. NaNoWriMo killed whatever chance I had of reading anything in November and by December I was basically exhausted and spent whatever time I wasn't awake sleeping. Yeah. Read that sentence back, I dare you.

But, this is a new month in a new year, and I'm going to try again. I'll start again on 'The Subtle Knife' by Philip Pullman, the sequal to 'The Northern Lights' which under no circumstances will I ever refer to as 'The Golden Compass'. It's not the title of the book and there is no compass in it whatsoever. Stupid Hollywood. Then, obviously, I'll read The Amber Spyglass. Then I'll hit up Borders and find something else to read. I also want to find the last Sally Lockhart mystery plus the follow up Jim Gordon one. But that's four books by the same author and it's probably best to not read them all at once.

What else do I resolve to do this year...well...I actually hate new years resolutions. But I am going to resolve to go a whole year without drowning another phone/assorted piece of electrical equipment. I have learned my lesson on that count, I think. Phones are like cats...they keep themselves clean and do not take kindly to being immersed in a bucket of water...I should also resolve to blog more but I think we all know that's highly unlikely. Setting unrealistic resolutions will only result in total failure.

I also resolve to tidy my room in the next couple of days. God it's a mess in here.

Over and out...