Luke's Adoxography

My Faithful Friends

2007-07-27T14:50:00.000+10:00

I Think that this may be one of the last few posts here. I have become hooked on the new and cooler phase of... Facebook.

Don't worry, it'll be uncool in a couple of years time, and then blogs will be fun and great again.

Just wait.

-...

I'm free

2007-06-13T21:58:00.001+10:00

Semester one is over for this cat. Good luck to everyone else!

-Fin

I'm on youtube!!

2007-05-19T00:40:00.000+10:00

For all those out there who still read my blog! I am on youtube.

Now that I'm famous (I'm on the internet!!) I'll try and post more of my famously famous exploits.

Lol.

-Fin

Free Broadband!!

2007-04-01T21:24:00.000+10:00

This is amazing!!

http://www.google.com/tisp/

And it's from google, so you know it's gotta be true ;)

~Fin

Still Catching Up

2007-03-31T12:05:00.000+10:00

Mmmm... I'm just looking at my last post and saw that it says I'm playing catchup.

I'm still playing catchup :)

Uni is great, but I just haven't been able to go to everything. I'm the kind of busy that smears time, so I'm perpetually confused when someone tells me it's actually friday when I thought it was monday. Luckily I haven't yet got to the point where I don't actually sleep... then it gets all blurry looking as well as feeling like I'm living three days at once.

jk. It's not really too bad, it's just that I can't believe that it's the mid semester break after next week. One class of mine I still haven't been to, but it's not entirely my fault, I swear :P

Hope everyone else is going well, if you get some spare time cook me some dinner and send it to me via express post. Yummay!

-Fin

New Year ey...

2007-03-10T14:10:00.000+10:00

Hey all... It's a new year innit... I suppose I should come back and say hi.

I'm back at uni, playing catchup :S however it's the kind of catch up that's really quite stimulating. I'm doing three subjects this semester - Jazz & Pop Workshop, World Music and Composing for Digital Environments. Awesome stuff in all three subjects so far. I feel inspired each week. Composing for Digital is really starting to grab a hold on me - it's more about programming, and this kind of programming I can really dig :)

Been challenged in so many ways over the past month or so, but it's been a good few weeks. I'll be having my 21st Birthday party (Yeehah :D) in a couple of weeks, you all better be there. I won't accept any excuse that isn't accompanied by a Doctor's Certificate.

Hope that everyone out there is going well, and if you know me, or are in the Coopers Plains area on the 24th, you're invited to my bash - the invite is included below. (I think if you click on it it'll take you to a bigger copy...)

-Fin

A Weird Tale

2007-03-08T12:37:00.000+10:00

Hey Guys,

I know I haven't been here for a while, but more shall be coming soon. I'm back at uni and bad as ever. Well, kinda. I'll be back to normal entries after I post this story.

I'm posting this because I had an extremely weird experience the other day. I was working in my cubicle, when suddenly a Fed Ex wallet landed in my mailbox. I was puzzled, as Fed Ex doesn't deliver to my office, let alone deliver to Australia. However I opened it, to find an old flick-style phone. It started ringing as soon as I took it out of the wallet.

"Hello, Luke" A deep, sonorous voice greeted me before I had a chance to answer. "We've been watching you for some time. I need you to go to the window".
I followed his instructions without even realising, and before I knew it I was standing next to an open window on the 45th floor of our building.
"Look underneath the ledge, Luke," Said the voice. I leant over the ledge and glanced underneath - scrawled were the words: "www.itsnotcheating.com.au". Just then a gust of wind came along, whipping the phone out of my hand and nearly toppling me out into the abyss.

I clambered back in, said "Stuff this..." and went back to work.

Don't ask me what it meant... twas just weird!

-Fin-

First Draft

2006-12-21T14:31:00.000+10:00

Hey all,

Here's an entry into a competition that I've been working on for a few days - tell us what you think, any critiques etc etc - I'm not entering it until next month so there's time for some tweaks :)

The competition asked for a 30 second visual representation of Triple J, so I made them a commercial.

Enjoy!

-Fin

Absurd

2006-12-19T11:25:00.000+10:00

I had the weirdest dream last night. Help me decipher it:

I came home to the apartment to find most of it packed up, as it will be, because mum & dad are taking us on a small holiday later on this week (In real life we'll be going on a holiday from the 23rd to the ...1st I think down to the G Coast) but I was kind of miffed at not having anything to do, so I left.

I was walking along the road, next to the airport. I was supposed to meet the president of the USA aboard air force one for some reason. What I didn't realise was that a) I was late, and b) Planes now carried large semi-molten rocks beneath them for heating during the long flights. These rocks were tethered to the plane by a large rope, which tended to break alot because pilots weren't used to taking off with these rocks yet and tended to bank sharply upwards on takeoff, thus stretching and snapping the ropes.

So I was walking along, and I saw Air Force one take off. However, it banked too sharply on takeoff, and my shock at seeing my meeting with the President go up in the air quite literally was taken over by seeing a fourteen tonne molten rock the shape of a bottle cap come hurtling towards me out of the sky. I let go a bloodcurdling AAAAAARGH and started to stumble away, paralysed by fear. The rock landed and then tumbled towards me even more, slowing down metres from me, and finally coming to rest so close that my hands were burnt on it. Some security guards pulled me out from under the rock.

I asked them why did planes do that? They answered that they just did, so get used to it. Get used to it? I cried, Get used to molten rocks dropping from the sky?!?!

So I went back home, and composed a song about it. It went like, "Planes shouldn't carry, rocks, up into the sky, oh no, especially not when they're, on fire, oh no..." and so on. I even remember the chord progression. E (high) .... E (high)/B, E (low) etc etc...

Then I woke up to a phone call.

Weird huh?

-Fin

Good reading

2006-12-11T18:49:00.001+10:00

Check it:

http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=1551

-Fin

Random

2006-12-04T19:07:00.000+10:00

This is why you should never be distracted while chopping beetroot:

Before Happy Feet the movie there was...:

151?

2006-11-25T17:08:00.000+10:00

Well the 150th post came and went with a bang. Well, more of a snip & a scream. For those of you wishing to do similar things, I used Adobe Premiere Elements, a few classical albums borrowed off my brother (Concerto in A minor - Grieg, and Overture of the Barber of Seville - Rossini), a few sounds found on www.findsounds.com, and a bit of creative time-stretching. Stay tuned for some more movie madness later on.

Today I just came back from a wedding. It's the first wedding I've been to both the ceremony and the reception, twas wonderful. It was a morning wedding, ceremony at 9:30 and reception at 11. I have alot of video of the ceremony, a few pictures from the reception, so I'll put them up here:

A few artsy type ones:

All photos are taken with a 3.2megapixel phone camera. Only the first photo had any photoshopping done, and that was just to sort out some lighting issues.

More interesting were the photos from the bucks party two days ago :D We doused him in honey, rolled him in sand, and then when he washed himself off we drew all over his chest and back, and then shaved his legs creatively - one had racing stripes, the other had rings.

Then we found fun things to put in the fire to blow up... hehehehe... None of the guys have deodorant cans left in their cars. Don't worry, we'll get some more soon, and we didn't do anything too dangerous - one guy had some butane cans in his truck, but we vetoed that one.

The movie is us putting a full can of lynx phoenix on the fire. Quite poetic when you think about it...

Seeing this bucks party and hearing what guys threatened to do as revenge at the next person's wedding makes me wonder if I should seriously consider celibacy...

-Fin

1 -- 5 -- 0

2006-11-23T14:21:00.000+10:00

This isn't the entry into the film competition, but I think everyone in Brisbane will be quite shocked nevertheless :)

149th Post

2006-11-14T09:15:00.000+10:00

Well I deleted one of the duplicate Salmonella posts, and so now this is the new 149th Post!! Which means I get to say hi to everyone, I hope exams are going well, especially if it's your last exam for the year, or even ever :)

Just for fun I'm chucking in a random Godson picture:

Heheheh... Good on ya Elijah. Which reminds me... Jess could you email me yours and Kye's mobile numbers? In fact, could everyone out there email me your mobile numbers? It's just that my mobile had to be put into be repaired suddenly, and I didn't get the chance to backup my Contacts :-( To email me, just send it to l2.harris[at]qut.edu.au

I think I'd also like to include some random video, just as a bumper 149th edition of my blog. The 150th will hopefully have that video I'm trying to enter into a short film competition.

There have also been some new additions to the Links part of my page - a few new friends and a few redirections to various parts of the world. Feel free to check them out.

Here's some more random cuteness, if Elijah hasn't made you smile :)

This is just a little video of a Mummy panda and a Baby panda.

I am busy

2006-11-10T00:04:00.000+10:00

I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
All your base are belong to us
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff
I am busy with uni and stuff

On a serious note, my 150th post is coming up next post, so I'm planning a video blog. Thanks everyone for periodically checking in though, you make me feel spesh :)

-Fin-

The Salmonella are swimming upstream

2006-10-28T01:17:00.001+10:00

I cut up a beautiful rockmelon yesterday, put it all in a tupperware container.

Then just tonight I find this news story:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1775651.htm

So yeah. I'm wondering whether to eat it or not...

I think it's okay, while I was cutting it open I had a few pieces and I haven't died yet :)

-Fin-

Update

2006-10-27T16:58:00.000+10:00

Okay. People have been clambering and clawing at me for another post. So here it is.

I found this site on wikipedia :)

Kilt Day

And

Look how many beers this kilt can fit in its pockets

-Fin-

Just a Taste...

2006-10-21T14:59:00.000+10:00

Okay. So Luke has no time to post, you may have noticed that :)

Below is just a taste of what I've been spending my time on. Ben, Isomorphic composition is something that I'm thinking about - I don't think many people are doing it, but this is my first example of it. What's isomorphism? Go to Wikipedia! I'm basically just writing a piece of music using the heuristics and stuff of a written essay. I want to see you play this when I get up to Cairns on the 11th of November!!

If you would like the audio file, Click Here (Only available until 4/11/2006)

The Video Blogging will continue when I get time to act on some of my ideas.

-Fin-

The end of an era

2006-10-09T00:44:00.000+10:00

My computer has died. I have no pictures, no video, no nothing to show for it, mainly cos I'm running off a loaner at the moment.

The story goes, I tried to install a much bigger hard drive. 320gb to be exact. This would give me wonderful amounts of space to provide you, my reading (and viewing) public, with some very tasty video treats. However, during the installation of this new drive, everything was going well when suddenly... my computer refused to boot.

Tried everything, tried putting everything back to normal, nothing worked. Kaput. Sadness ensued. However the next day pete came to the rescue with a loaner desktop. So we sat around the place while I copied the image of my old hard drive onto the new, and everything went fine. Perhaps it was just the old computer's time to go.

So yes. I hope to have a replacement soon, but we shall see, my faithful readers and viewers... Who knows what the future may bring?

We shall see.

-Fin-

IT IS HERE>>>

2006-10-06T21:27:00.000+10:00

Coming Soon...

2006-10-04T00:12:00.000+10:00

Adoxography 2.0 coming soon

Night Time Picnics

2006-10-01T23:32:00.000+10:00

The holidays are over, marked by a beautiful ceremony held down in Mowbray park with four members of the 100 acre wood gang. Red Rooster, accidental wax drips, tree climbing and happy bruises all contributed to a great night had by all.

Spoke at church, went quite well, but thanks so much to Tim Fawsett for worship leading - was such a good worship service.

Mmm I promised Tiph that this blog would get more interesting, cos it's really not at the moment. So here's a copout, cos I'm tired. Here's some "God Speaks" quotes from a billboard in Cleveland, Ohio.

Let's meet at my house Sunday before the game - God
What part of Thou Shalt Not don't you understand? - God
We need to talk. - God
Keep using my name in vain, I'll make the rush hour longer. - God
Loved the wedding, invite me to the marriage - God
Will the road you're on get you to my place? - God
My way is the highway - God
Need directions? - God
You think it's hot here? - God
Do you have any idea where you're going? - God
Don't make me come down there... oh wait, that's right... - God

-Fin-

Does God want us to be rich?

2006-09-30T13:16:00.000+10:00

I found this on another website, it's quite... interesting to say the least!

Link

As the other guy said on his blog, the short answer is, No. The long answer is, feel free to be rich, but don't store up treasures here on Earth. Use them wisely to build up treasures in Heaven.

Does anyone know anything more about J Creflo Jnr? I've seen his program once while I was up late... weird stuff :) Also the Chaser's war on everything made fun of them recently, go to www.abc.net.au/thechaser to have a look at their take on things.

-Fin-

Trust, and other misused verbs

2006-09-26T12:03:00.000+10:00

Hmm well I had a post ready to go but it was lost when my computer had to be logged off :S:S:S

Anyway it's been fun writing the sermon - there are just some passages which are more than just exciting to delve into... they really click things into place in your head. That's what I love about learning, and probably why I want to be a teacher - I like to see things clicking into place in people's heads. My friend suggested that that's a reason to become a Neurosurgeon, not a teacher.

We had the ball on Saturday night, and it actually went really well, thanks to improvisation from all when it came to decorations and the actual order of the night. Thanks to the entire committee - I was only a very small part and you guys were great :) I did however enjoy being french.

I hope everyone's holidays are going well - I've somehow, through no effort on my part, managed to catch up with 7 Cairns friends in the last 3 days - Sunday saw the catch up with Vinny, Jono and Paul, (although Jono and Paul live in brisbane now) and then last night the boys from the band Sleeping in Trains were over at our place, messing things up and just having a good time.

It has been an interesting past two weeks though, looking at them in summary. I've gotten alot closer to friends of mine who helped organise the ball, I've discovered that our church's basement is perhaps the most eclectic collection of ...stuff to grace a church I've ever seen. I've stayed up til the wee hours trying to say goodbye to people but then landing on another interesting tangent of conversation. I've run into old friends, I've made alot of money, I've spent a little of it, I've bought a box filled with small paper flowers. I've climbed through dungeons with an intrepid young lady, ventured to hillside parks with friends, conversed about the subleties of eating a KFC two piece feed and laughed about dodgy movies. I've composed new songs, I've written stories, I've had flashes of brilliance, moments of incredible stupidity, I've laughed alot. I've relearnt to laugh at my own failures, to embrace others through theirs, to stand up against sin rather than let it walk all over you, to trust God through all things. I've admired friends for their perseverance, their character, their fortitude and their steadfastness.

I think, however, that the last four nights of not enough sleep is taking its toll... I've started sleeping on trains (haha, pun) and I've been in need of more and more coke to get going during the day. Perhaps my holiday isn't so much a holiday, but a - mergh I don't know what word I'd use, perhaps a german word - thing-that-creates-need-for-recovery. Thus holiday really isn't a well used verb at all. Holiday means respite, a holy day for recovery. Yet now my holidays are the complete opposite. I think this is what Jesus was trying to talk about when he blasted the religious guys about the sabbath - it was intended as a day to let aside everything and focus on God, but it turned into a day where you spend the day trying not to tread on God's toes - in effect they had turned the day into a day where you tried to avoid God.

So perhaps I need to cut back from a few things that aren't essential, and focus on actually relaxing. I'll take an afternoon nap, go and have a cup of tea and read the newspaper in the botanic gardens or something like that. I just need to regain my use of another misused verb - Trust. I just need to trust that the universe will keep on going without me, just for a few hours. Unfortunately, that'll have to wait for tomorrow, as I'm at work at the moment :)

-Fin-

Support Appreciated

2006-09-21T10:14:00.000+10:00

Thank you to those of you who came last night to my Escape performance - it went really well! Your support is much appreciated.

Hmm... there's one other thing I'd like to ask your support for though - on October the 1st I'll be preaching for the first time at my church. So if you're not doing anything it'd be great if you could be there, but more importantly if there's any among you who reckon you're alright at reading the Bible (coughMattcough) would you swing me an email at l2.harris[AT]qut.edu.au and I'll send you a draft copy of the sermon to look over.

Just so that you guys have stuff to comment about - how was everyone's weeks, and what have you got planned for the mid semester break? Chris, maybe tell us a little bit more about Outbreak - and I'm definitely waiting for a full writeup of how it went after you come back :)

For all you one eighty-ers, what've you got planned for your school hols? If you're going on outbreak, have fun!

-Fin-

Come one! Come all! Come... anyone?!

2006-09-19T13:56:00.000+10:00

EVERYONE!!!!

Hello out there.

If you live in Brisbane and aren't doing anything from 7-8pm tomorrow night, that is the night of Wednesday the 20th of September 2006...

Come to Escape! I will be rocking out on the drums at the Creative Industries Precinct at QUT Kelvin Grove. It's free, but don't let that deter you! Come and see the amazing antics of the QUT music faculty.

Yes Aaron, QUT's music is good. No, UQ's is not superior :P

Come along!

-Fin-

Punk Cabaret Is Freedom

2006-09-15T23:56:00.000+10:00

Heysa All :)

Just got home from the Dresden Dolls' gig - which I walked out of and went into the brunswick st mall and caught the end of Regurgitator's set!!

Twas a brilliant night. Myself and Aaron arrived at the Arena at a ridiculously early time for a gig to start (darn all ages gigs... but it was fun getting out and it only being 10pm) and we were first of all entertained by a guy named Jason Webley. Who would have thought one man with one accordion could be so entertaining... he was a great act, working the crowd with finesse. At one point he had the entire dance floor (yes they were the under 18's) twirling around in a circle to create the effect of being drunk.

The second act was the zen zen zo physical theatre people, it was really cool, with a musical act being accompanied by about 10 whitewashed actors ... well dancing of sorts in their spot on the dancefloor. Anyway it kinda defies description... hypnotically beautiful though.

The third act was The Red Paintings, which was hugely visually integrating. For those not in the know, it's a five piece band with guitar/vox, bass guitar, drums, cello/vox and violin. These guys are dressed up outrageously, with them all dressed up in traditional japanese kimonos and stuff. Down the front of the stage, they have painters they know painting on huge canvasses while they play, and behind them they have a giant projection screen showing apocalyptic images. However, even with all the visuals, some of their sound went a bit awry. I quite liked it all, but perhaps not all their songs held my focus and perhaps jarred a bit. That can be good, but tonight not everything worked well for them.

Then, [sigh], the Dresden Dolls came on. I had been anxious to see how two people with three instruments (piano + vox, drums) could create any semblance of the large sound on their records. They didn't let me down, and exceeded all expectations - a wonderful mix of dynamism in their physical communication and a beautiful mix. Even through my -25dB perception (musician's earplugs) it rocked my world. Towards the end the longer and slower songs took its toll on the excited crowd and the concentration wavered, but they brought the focus back with a sneaky encore with Jason Webley. Overall, left me feeling excited about taking over the world. Just on a random note (although their musicality is in some ways similar...) I can't wait til Muse tours next.

-Fin-

Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth

2006-09-12T12:30:00.000+10:00

So. Over the past post or so, we've seen a bit of a reaction about worship in the realms of vocal congregational worship. Just for this post, let's put aside the other aspects of worship (not permanently hopefully!) and focus on our views and opinions about the whole thing.

I guess I should start by saying that there has been alot said that I think could be relegated into the realms of personal taste (but that's just my personal opinion ;) ). Like, yes, I personally would love songs to take it to the next level - with Hillsong and Planetshakers it's fast becoming an annual album for a conference deal while the quality of songs gets left in the dust. I also agree that the words used and chordal patterns in many songs are getting old

However, I thought it best to recognise that we cannot move on without leaving certain things behind - by that I mean that some people do really appreciate old hymns - much more so than anything produced in the last forty years. The oldies at our church are silent right up until you pull out "What a friend we have in Jesus" and then they'll bust out with all of their frail lung capacity. It's quite humbling really, some of them sing louder than the teenagers.

And to completely discount Planet Shakers would be as ludicrous as saying that Pop music has had no impact on the musical community at large. I know many people really like Planetshakers stuff, even if the songs share not only structure but chordal basis and timbral mix. I know heaps of people enjoy singing "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs even though I personally am with Frost on this one, I don't like 'em at all.

I'd also like to say that although some words have been used to death, singing them still does resonate within me. Keith Green wrote "Your grace abounds unto me" - a phrase using old grammar but which says it so clearly still. One of my favourite songs is "As the deer". I mean, it's straight from scripture, but it still uses the word "panteth" :) Gotta love it.

Anyway. What my question is to the community at large, and please feel free to make long comments, do you feel there is a way forward which takes in all the diverse cultural, denominational and personal tastes of Christians today?

-Fin-

A few good reads

2006-09-11T19:12:00.000+10:00

Here's a few good links thanks to Matt :D

I'm lucky I was bored otherwise I would have never stumbled upon these gems - I recommend reading at least this one: Link even if you're not bored :D

Also visit http://geezmagazine.org for some interesting left-winger kinda stuff. It's especially good if you think that Christianity should extend beyond the borders of the church and into things like environmentalism etc.

-Fin-

Holidays!!

2006-09-11T12:46:00.000+10:00

Well, kinda.

Yes, it's true, I have the next three weeks off, but that's only because I'm in the music faculty. I have to come into uni for three days out of the next two weeks to practice for...

---| ESCAPE |---

Yes. I have emphasised its importance through the cunning use of Ascii characters. Escape is the annual showcase for QUT music and sound students. I've been asked many a time what I'm doing for escape, and the answer is... complicated. I started off having composed this kinda nice ethereal piece (we were supposed to do some kind of computer piece) but then we were asked to perhaps make it meaner. So we went the whole hog, and the climax of our piece has my partner in crime/music hitting his guitar with his cast (he broke his arm recently) and screaming into the microphone. We're trying to just go over-the-top with mean, angsty hardcore stuff. Hopefully i'll have a video of it to upload once it's performed, so keep checking the blog.

Until then, I'll keep adding my own brand of witticisms and thoughtful thoughts.

-Fin-

I'm so proud...

2006-09-04T18:56:00.000+10:00

I'm so happy, this is my new baby:

Yes, I'm the proud owner of a Studio Quality Mic... Finally!

I stopped by the public trustee auctions this morning and had my first real auction experience. Twas great - there's so much good stuff, just never enough money :)

I won't mention any figures, but I snagged my new mic for about half the price it would be on ebay.

-Fin-

Co-inky-dink?

2006-08-28T13:45:00.000+10:00

27th August, 2006 - a day churches in SE QLD set aside for prayer for rain.

From News.com.au -

Showers increasing in QLD and NSW
By Tom Saunders
August 28, 2006 12:00 EST

Showers over southeast QLD and northeastern NSW increased to rain early Monday morning. Brisbane picked up 20mm, 15mm in 30 minutes. This is their highest daily total in 2 months. They also had their highest August minimum temperature in 26 years. A few thunderstorms have also been occurring. A trough is developing further and this will help cause heavier showers and thunderstorms on Monday afternoon and evening and on Tuesday on Monday and Tuesday. Parts of southeast QLD and northeast NSW are likely to receive daily falls above 20mm. Showers will also extend further west and south, reaching about Roma and Sydney by Monday night. A second, broader upper trough will maintain showers in the region on Wednesday and Thursday with falls possibly extending to the western plains of NSW and up the QLD coast to around Mackay. Cumulative falls from Monday to Thursday should exceed 50mm in at least some parts of southeast QLD and northeast NSW. Some flash flooding is likely.

Funny, huh? ;)

-Fin-

No Sleep = Work Gets Done

2006-08-23T19:04:00.000+10:00

I ran into some of you today, and some of you last nite, but for me it's been the same day. I didn't end up sleeping last night after Nightlife, as I had a presentation due the next day and everything I had ready to go didn't seem good enough. So I put one of my ideas into the computer, recording various sounds from my keyboard and had it to a point where I was like, this is okay, but then I realised that it just wasn't right. I wanted it to be better.

So I got on my bicycle at 1am in the morning and rode to QUT. Therein I went to the studio where a security guard was nice enough to let me in even without a booking, and I had 5 hours to record real piano, drums and timpani (tympani?) for my piece.

I didnt' get time to do vocals, but vocals never sound great after you've been awake for more than a day.

Without further ado, I present the half finished, half as long as I'd like to be version of 'To Earthward'. The drums are semi-okay, I think I need to go back and mic the snare closer and get rid of some of the room mic, and the structure of the piece lends itself to a much longer piece. The lyrics haven't been recorded yet, but when the song's done I'll be in touch with you guys.

Luke's Purevolume Site

P.S. for those who were wondering, the time signature's a rolling 5/8, 6/8, 7/8, 6/8 pattern. If you add those numbers up it's pretty simple, with each verse being the equivalent of four bars of 6/8.

-Fin-

The Flip Side

2006-08-22T16:32:00.000+10:00

Here's an interesting link I stumbled across in the big bad web, it contains a very small amount of swearing but some interesting viewpoints:

16 Common myths about atheists

What does everyone think?

-Fin-

Proposed Changes

2006-08-21T18:50:00.000+10:00

I propose that I delete the links to 'Solve this trolley mystery' and Ryan's blog - Ryan's a dead link and Wentworth hasn't updated in like... 10 months. That's beyond the reach of even the update song.

Any objections?

-Fin-

Brain is AWOL

2006-08-21T18:09:00.000+10:00

I'm so tired and my knee is buggered.

Tired from mens camp from such things as running, jumping and woodchopping. My knee does this from time to time, a tendon or something gets out of place and hurts like anything for a little while. Should be okay by wednesday. I hope it's okay... otherwise I'll become unfit again :)

Cool video of something I'd like to be able to do one day, that is, parkour (just look in wikipedia if you want to know what it is, it'll be ages before I can do half the stuff this guy can do) - :

Um... Is that enough tidbits for today?

Maybe not. Um, a couple of really cool guys at uni today were just telling me all about their new studio... man it sounds awesome. Each of them took out a $10k loan, and they've got a heap of really awesome gear. 4 screens of pure recording beauty. Anyway, it might just be beautiful to me. Makes me really anxious to get my own little one. A laptop, that is.

Oh and also, on the weekend I became a godfather :) It feels, honouring, and a bit exciting. I mean, I'm gonna have an input in Elijah John Nichols-Tansen's life... Yeah, some of you might find that scary, but I reckon it'll be cool.

Anyway, hope things are fine and dandy for everyone.

-Fin-

Hmm...

2006-08-17T10:55:00.000+10:00

Okay. So apparently when dealing with guitar pedals and a parallel PSU, all you need to worry about is if the PSU has enough ampage to deal with the total draw of all devices.

Anyway...

My mind's just gone blank, I'll write more later.

-Fin-

Does anyone know?

2006-08-15T13:54:00.000+10:00

Hmm... does anyone out there in blogland know, or know anyone who could tell me how to equally distribute ampage over a serial power connection, or does it automatically do it?

I'll try and research but if someone could just talk me through it I'd understand alot better :)

***STOP PRESS*** I've just been researching for awhile... shows how long I haven't done any electric stuff for - I was thinking of a parallel connection :)

-Fin-

One for the Girls

2006-08-14T18:00:00.000+10:00

I just had a conversation with a friend named Amy online about the differences between Girl's and Guys preparation for events like formals or stuff:

Ammah says:
yeah... silly boys clothes are always easy

Luke says:
:)
boys formal day - spent swimming
girls formal day - spent in hairdresser and makeup

Ammah says:
Thats like the wedding day: Guys - wake up 1 hours before hand... maybe half an hour... girls.... have been up for 10 hours before they get to the church!!

Ammah says:
Why are we so hard to beautify???

Luke says:
nah the way I see it is that girls are already beautiful
an artist once said that the hardest part of a painting was refining it from beauty to perfection
that's all a girl it doing, and it takes ages
guys just don't really care if they're beautiful or not, and girls, being the forgiving creatures they are, accept us

Ammah says:
hahah, I like your theory!!!!

Heheheh... Some serious 'awww' factor goin on there...

-Fin-

Shark Fin Soup

2006-08-14T17:26:00.000+10:00

So I had Shark Fin Soup at Yum Cha at Saturday lunch. I have no ethical dilemmas with it, but apparently aaron does :)

Here's an email he sent me.

Hey there
Check this out...if its no good for Yao Ming, then its no good for you.  So
say no to the fin!!!
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/general/news/story?id=2537709

See ya
Aaron

Well obviously now that Yao Ming has said no to it, I'll have to as well. Actually I'm more likely to say no to it due to its $18 price tag... and that's just for normal! If you want the double braised shark fin it was $60. ...Ouch.

-Fin-

The Brain Needs Out...

2006-08-08T13:13:00.000+10:00

Well, this is a post that periodically comes along in my blog. Alot's happening in my life at the moment, and I tend to come up with "Projects" - things that I want or need to accomplish.

The other night Aaron was saying that he thinks I go through 'phases' - where I'm really keen about doing something for the rest of my life, but then I change. I don't think that's right really... my life tends to have certain interests that it revolves around, and at various points in my life those interests change places in my priorities ladder.

Anyway this blog entry is perhaps more for me than for you guys, I just need to write down exactly what's going on in my head so I can systematically try and get them done :)

Luke's Brain

expressed in point form

Religion
Woodwork
Art
Music (Electronics...)
Film
Business

1. Religion

Church, Nitelife, Evangelism etc... It's all encompassing at the moment, God's really challenging me in the areas of sharing with friends. It's an interesting thought that I'm pondering on though. If Jesus came to set us free from guilt, is it right to feel guilty about not sharing with friends enough? Good books I'm reading at the moment include: 2nd Samuel, The Message translation of all the Gospels, Surprised by Joy by CS Lewis, and Desiring God by John Piper.

2. Woodwork

I've been into woodwork for ages, its one of my dad's hobbies, so its been passed on to me. In fact, most of Dads hobbies have been passed onto me - Woodwork, electronics, sound, etc. It's great. In the woodwork area I bought alot of hardware last Sunday - wood saw, hacksaw, wood stain & sealer, paint brushes, sandpaper, mineral turps, workhorses, thin plywood, shelving brackets and much much more. Anyway all this stuff is for three main ends - I want to re-stain and seal a wooden bowl i picked up at a garage sale, I want to put a backing on a picture frame I bought at the same sale, and I want to put a big shelf up in my garage. Should be good fun, if I get time :)

3. Art

I've also been into Art in general, especially drawing, painting and photography for a while, but I haven't had the chance or materials to get back into it. Hopefully I'll get the chance over the next few weekends. Painting would be great to get back into especially, as it has the potential to bring in a small amount of pocket money with the help of ebay ;)

4. Music (& Electronics)

I've been really getting into music again this semester, with a few assignments well on their way to being done way ahead of time :D :D I'm working on combining composition and performance with the use of Ableton Live, I just hope that I can perfect it sooner rather than later - I have to report on my progress by this thursday. I just need to record some samples which I can trigger, and practice recording and playing back exact measures of audio in Ableton. I'm also working on placing a cheap dick smith cardioid microphone inside my ukulele - the guitar pickup I bought ... doesn't really fit :). Anyway I've tested the microphone hooked up to a mono socket, it works fine, I just need to get some solder and find my drill's recharging station so I can drill a hole through my uke.

5. Film

There's an idea floating around about the next social (not the antisocial) and it could be a corker. However I would want to make a film about the preparation for this social - it could be awesome.

6. Business

Well not really business. I'm just really keen about spending wisely at the moment, so I like it when my hobbies pay for themselves. Going to garage sales are great, because I can pick up stuff that I can either on-sell (CD's, DVD's) or restore and sell at a later date (like the wooden bowl). My last good visit to a garage sale has paid for itself, so I'm a happy chappy :)

Extension on no. 4

I'm saving up at the moment to buy a portable recording studio - that would involve a laptop, an audio interface, some good mikes and a portable recording booth. That's my goal at the moment.

Well that's about it, not much of it may make sense to all of you, but hopefully I've let you a little bit more into my head. Hopefully you'll gain some enlightenment from it... but I understand you probably won't ;)

-Fin-

Drool

2006-08-07T20:02:00.000+10:00

It's things like these that make me wish I wasn't on a diet.

Jennifah, why did you send me this picture!?!?!?! :P

-Fin-

DisclaimerohwaitIjustlikediggingholes

2006-07-31T17:13:00.000+10:00

I'd like to apologise for my previous post. My allegations about Satan being the instigator of neighbours was quite biased and unfounded in its nature. I don't hate neighbours...

...Actually, you know what?

I think that on this one point I'm going to stop being such a left-wing pinko and actually say that yes, I really despise soaps. I might take a perverse pleasure in watching them, but only because in my mind I'm picking apart every nanosecond of second-rate trash they're throwing at me.

Soapies are an evil construct of an evil society to promote evil ideas in soon-to-be evil people. Just think about what kind of culture soapies are promoting - an isolated, introspective and melodramatic community with semi-likeable characters involved in dubious behaviour. I liken it to a community in which every single member has a tabloids' worth of events happen to them each day. An uber-dramatic society if you will.

Of course, if this happened in real life, knowing Australians, we'd probably cope by adjusting our social norms. By this I mean if Neighbours was real, you could easily expect the following conversation to occur regularly between friends:

"So hows the baby?"
"Oh it's orright. By that I mean, well it's in a better place now. My father-in-law ran over it with a lawnmower to take revenge for my sabotaging his prize-winning petunias. Luckily he's in a coma now due to the fact that my ex-wife ran into him with our SUV after he killed our firstborn. Of course, that drove her a little, y'know, cuckoo, so she's just gone and driven that brand new wedding present of a car off the cliff. Pity really, I could've gotten a hell of a trade in for it. Anyway yeah, so if you'll pardon the pun you can see that we're now separated, and I'm just trying to figure out how I'm going to continue on with the family business. I can remember, it was just last week my secretary shagged my father-in-law to try and get me fired! Ah, good times. I'm going to have to have her 'removed', but y'know, you gotta do what you gotta do. Meanwhile, this hurricane that's bearing down on us is gettin' a bit stormy, I probably better get back to try and ... oh wait, there she goes. Wassat? nah, don't worry about it, I was just going to go home and try and batten down the hatches but I just saw the house fly past the bar - mind if I crash at your place tonight mate? Yeah no worries. Don't worry, I won't try any of those shennanigans like when I was going through my "phase" a year back... Heh heh. Yeah. Ah well. Then tomorrow I guess I'll try and dig my car out of the mangroves, I've got a hunch that perhaps because our car wasn't retrievable that my wife might still be alive, trapped with a bubble of air beneath the surface, y'know? I might also see if the house is retrievable. At least, I'm pretty sure the priceless treasure-map that my grandfather passed down to us should be retrievable. Just a hunch. Ah well, whatever happens happens I guess."
"Yep, these things do happen."

-Fin-

Respite, Sweet Respite

2006-07-31T02:27:00.000+10:00

At last, something is on other than Neighbours.

To all our American friends, Neighbours is a tv soapie originally conceived by Satan himself in 1982. It first went to air in 1985, originally on the TV station "Seven". The fact that there are seven deadly sins is a complete and unconnected coincidence. In fact with the addition of neighbours perhaps there is now eight deadly sins.

Anyway, after a year of underperforming in the ratings, Neighbours moved to rival station "Ten". In that same year, a daughter of one of the most influential men in UK television, Michael Grade (From BBC One) decided that she liked it - so of course, BBC one started showing it. Before too long, Satan had infiltrated the ranks of the young, with 10 million regular viewers over in England - more than over here in Australia.

Now let me just explain my gripe with Neighbours. This 22 minute show is screened five times a week, come rain, hail or shine. Females seem to be especially taken in by its charm, however males tend to be immune to its brand of televised tripe. The only unfortunate thing is that when lovers of the show say "Well if you don't like it, change the channel!", one can only find such high-class info-tainment shows such as Today Tonight or a Current Affair. Let us overlook the fact that most of their segments are sensationalist pieces targeted at left-wing lower-middle class white Australia and look at the more alarming - these two programs tend to be identical. Where Today Tonight will have the headline story of the wonderful new bra which naturally increases breast sizes, A Current Affair will have the groundbreaking news that a scientist has developed a way to increase breast sizes - not with surgery, but naturally - with a bra.

Often I have switched over to SBS and ABC in hope that they would provide better fare, only to be greeted by a show on ABC about collecting things like horse shoes, or to SBS's scary asian news-reader who my friends say looks like my mum. (Note to readers - my mum looks nothing like the lady in question. My friends, God bless 'em, only say this because to them all asians look alike.)

However, to bring all this meandering about to a giant, plane-crashing end in the fashion of so many innocent tourists before us, I found a place of solstice - a gem among the black, black coals of mediocrity. 6:30 on Friday nights, on ABC is a program called "Can We Help?". It's hosted by one of the guys out of Cath & Kim, and is a sometimes funny, sometimes insightful look into the everyday world. Last Friday night I was so overjoyed to find a program that was worth watching it felt like a life-buoy to a drowning man.

Last Friday they tracked down the origins of an unobtrusive little park in suburban Melbourne - one of the viewers wrote in asking, why is this park called "Three Boys Park"? It turned out that while a guy had been surfing, he had lost his way and been pulled nearly a kilometre out to sea by a rip. Out of the crowd which had gathered to watch the unfolding drama, two boys swam out to help the distressed surfer. Although they made it to him and nearly all the way back to the rock outcropping where the crowd was, a large wave hit them at the last minute and swept one of the exhausted rescuers out to sea where he soon drowned. The park was built as a commemoration of the three boys' friendship and the sacrifice made by one of them.

Although still not the greatest of shows, "Can We Help?" is still definitely worth a watch or two. If nothing else, it's the light at the end of the tunnel in that darkest of all television timeslots, the 6:30 - 7.

-Fin-

I forgot a couple of things

2006-07-19T19:35:00.000+10:00

The other thing about MYC was that the feature film debut of Bruce and Raylene occurred - go http://www.youtube.com/user/Laurenlaurielala to find out more.

You know what else?

[don't watch this if particularly sensitive about religious parodies... you have been warned]

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&n=2&videoid=824979756

-Fin-

I suppose I should update... [grumbles]

2006-07-19T19:02:00.000+10:00

Well yeah. Here's the update.

umm...

My brain's dead from too many days of not having a sleep in. Nah, I lie, I'm pretty okay, I just wish I had had another week of holidays. Let's all have a cry for Luke.

Now that the torrent of tears has stopped, I really can't think of much to tell you, so I'll start with the requests made by people. Anonymous people. Evil people.

MYC was approximately 5 days and nights spent up at Currimundi Recreation Centre a couple of weeks ago. Besides the usual camp things such as bonfires, campfires and other small insignificant fires, we had things like food, fellowship and fun. Worship was included in the admission price, as well as sermons, testimonies, powerful challengings from God and, oh, you know, the occasional life-changing experience.

Personally?

I guess it was 5 days where interesting things happened, I met some new people, renewed friendships with other people, disturbed people's sleep with my snoring (hey, I had a blocked nose) and gained a heap of weight from the wonderful food.

Two things:

It's amazing how the same people criticizing my snoring (read criticizing: laughing about) were the ones who snored the loudest on the first night, prompting my purchase of earplugs for all subsequent nights.

It's also interesting how only uni students who have moved out of home but can't look after themselves entirely properly yet fully appreciate the food on camps. Having someone prepare your meals is perhaps as wonderful and moving as for the disciples when Jesus washed their feet. The fact that one of our chefs could speak like 4 or 5 languages and was funny was just a bonus.

Okay. MYC enough from me. Say that like a rapper... "enough from me/bout MYC"

Had an interesting bit of news reach me last night, I guess it got me down a bit. Just about another Christian who had messed up hugely, and had affected alot of people's lives. Thoughts that jumped through my head were:

What will people think of Christianity?

What does this mean for me - this is something that I'm capable of doing... can I trust myself?

Hmm... That's about all that went through my head. They kind of circled round like vultures for a while. It's disconcerting when thoughts do that, you'll be trying to read a book or something and then one of those thoughts will jump to the forefront of your mind vying for attention.

I don't even know if I spelt 'vying' right. You get the picture tho.

Anyway the last month has contained huge ups and downs, stuffups and victories, good things, bad things and a few laughs mixed in. Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but if I do it again, just take that as a sign I need attention and then msg me to invite me out to a movie or something :)

-Fin-

The other other white meat

2006-06-29T22:12:00.000+10:00

I apologise for the title of this post, it's in completely bad taste. :P

But aww, it's a little bubby :) yes, I got to hold Jess & Kye's baby the other day, this was the picture:

Congrats guys :)

-Fin-

Musings

2006-06-23T00:31:00.000+10:00

A friend put up a verse in a post of hers recently, and part of that verse went like this: "Seek first the kingdom of God". I commented that although we all seem to be fine seeking the kingdom of God, we all tend to fall short when it comes to seeking it first.

I should know - I mean, every day I see myself consciously looking at God, thumbing my metaphorical nose at him and going the other way. I guess overall I might be seeking God, at least as much as David did in the OT, but what exactly does it mean to seek the kingdom of God first?

Is it some post-modern thing nowadays? Perhaps people are seeking first the Kingdom of God, but in their own little special ways.

What about corporately? Is the church seeking God first? I personally would like to know people's ideas about what would we be doing if we were seeking God first.

Actually that's a bit contradictory isn't it - asking people to imagine what seeking God is about. That's like rats in a maze asking the other rats, "What's going on here then?".

I suppose, in a post-modern kinda way, it seems to come down to us and our relationship with God. I might have mentioned it in a previous post, but a friend recently commented that perhaps the ideal church would be simply about Loving God with all your Heart, Soul, Strength and Mind, and Loving others as yourself.

Let me ask you this in lieu of a non-contradictory thesis - what would a church focussed on loving God and loving others look like?

One proviso of commenting on this blog is that you do not argue with others in your comments - state your case, then sit back and watch. If you have anything to add to your own, please do so, but leave any comments on other's contributions until later.

-Fin-

Aaron's a geek

2006-06-19T09:09:00.000+10:00

Well done aaron, your geek status is confirmed. The only one you didn't get (and no one else either!) was no. 9 on the quotes list - this is from the ne'er-aging "Labrynth", from 1986 starring David Bowie.

Anyway, work is getting back to normal, and by that I mean I have nothing to do all day but sit. I'm expecting that at certain periods during the day I'll have to serve a big rush of people coming out of exams, but that's okay. It's okay because I don't have any exams left. (Apologies to those who have, but gloating was a temptation I was never good at resisting)

Hmm, I need help figuring out which book or movie I'm thinking of - I keep remembering a line that goes along the lines of: He felt infected with a terrible purpose... talking about how he felt like his life was going towards something huge. I'm thinking that it's Dune. Anybody else read Dune? Well you should have.

-Fin-

Guess the movie

2006-06-17T17:07:00.000+10:00

This is for everyone's fun. Jess, you can't enter cause you're watching me type this.

There are two games, guess the movie from the quote, and guess the movie from the infamous ... thing of infamy.

You'll see.

Put your answers in the comments!

Movies by quote:
1. I'm tellin' you man, every third blink is slower!
2. Right in the babymakers.
3. Too bad, she said she doesn't want you here when she gets back because you've been ruining everybody's lives and eating all our steak. (If you don't get this, don't bother coming back to this blog, I'm sorry.)
4. No, Marcus, I do not want to come over for Christmas. I do not want to spend Christmas with Ms. Granola Suicide and her spawn.
5. I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself.
6. I'm like cat here, a no-name slob. We belong to nobody, and nobody belongs to us. We don't even belong to each other. ... [by the same person:-] Oh, golly gee damn!
7. Laugh it up, fuzzball. [Be exact here... I want to know the circumstance!!]
8. I may say the disclosure had quite the opposite effect to the one she intended. It taught me to hope as I had scarcely ever allowed myself to hope before.
9. Ohhhh! Please, Your Majesty, not the eternal stench!
10. So you all will know the seriousness of my warning, I shall say this in English.

Movies By Infamy:
1. Soap.
2. "Hair gel".
3. .44 magnum [Hint - it was also in the quotes...]
4. Prolonged vomit from puppets.
5. Beethoven's 9th & Ultraviolence
6. Fava beans and a nice Chianti.
7. The electric chair and a mouse.
8. Slow motion while dodging.
9. John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Dancing. No, not Be Cool.
10. Can you all think of any more?

-Fin-

Yay for really bad singing

2006-06-13T05:15:00.000+10:00

I'm now a musician with a semblance of a folio.

For more details feel free to visit: www.purevolume.com/shadowboy - there you can find two tracks from my 15 minute folio, and one which I've composed for another subject but quite liked.

The "Hello Computer" song I've had the idea for for a couple of weeks, but just in the last night (i'm still at uni, it's 5:15am, I've just finished another overnighter) it took me about two hours to knock this song up for your listening pleasure. I'm quite pleased at how it turned out, it's rather humorous.

On that note, I can proudly announce that after this overnighter I'm finished all assignments for the semester - I'm free!! On Holidays!! Yeeehah :D

-Fin-

A blog about aaron

2006-05-31T00:27:00.000+10:00

I have a housemate named Aaron. He's requested a post about him, so here it is.

He's a good housemate, a little bit messy sometimes but is generally fine. He needs some cleaning up after, but who doesn't? He is generally well kept and hygenic, and is housetrained.

He's great company if you're doing anything requiring little effort. Movies, playstation, general chat about the weather, all fine. Taking him for walks is only allowed when necessary, and sports are right out of the question.

He's of a nice temperament, with a slight penchant for overarching generalisations on many topics. He manages a very peculiar illusion of seeming like a good person pretending to be a jerk. Underneath the surface, as he'll readily tell you, he's simply a jerk, pretending to be a nice person, pretending to be a jerk. Reminds me of the Shakespearean era when girls used to pretend to be a man so that she could get a part in a play as a man pretending to be a girl. Go figure.

As a housemate, I'd heartily recommend him. He's a relatively purebred anglo-saxon, shown by his tendancy to burn easily in high sun levels.

If you're interested in more information, you can go to the official Aaron foundation, www.aaronfoundation.org.

-Fin-

Update... Kinda

2006-05-25T10:48:00.000+10:00

Well there's not much to blog about. Uni happened, except for when it didnt. Then I either slept, ate, watched tv/movies, worked on assignments, ate some more, drank, bought an external hard drive and happened to spy a paperclip bent so it looked like a bubble-font V.

-Fin-

When Drama isn't Enough

2006-05-11T08:58:00.000+10:00

I was lining up in Coles, when I foolishly glanced down at some hack womens magazines like Take 5 or something like that - these are the actual headlines, if you head down to Coles or Woolies or your newsagent you'll be able to see them and laugh as well.

I think its kinda sad when they have to put headlines like this up.

"Marijuana Killed my Man!"

"Attacked by a flesh eating virus..." (And if that wasn't dramatic enough) "...while giving birth!!!"

-Fin-

Warning

2006-04-26T22:26:00.000+10:00

My blog may be unattended for the next week.

Matt, if you need to, you're perfectly welcome to use my blog comments section to start topics of your own :)

Have fun kids...

(It's not an end, it's an ellipsis - Garden State)

-Fin-

Argh! The Glowing Fires are coming to get us! Oh wait that's the sun...

2006-04-25T13:19:00.000+10:00

After spending a week and a half in rainy Cairns, one of the weirdest things that I never thought I'd realise about Brisbane is that it's sunny. After coming back to Brisbane, I've realised that I've barely seen the sun for a week and a half. Almost didn't recognise it.

I'm currently at work, and my co-worker has hiccups. One universal truth, is that if one has hiccups, one cannot be threatening. He was trying to beat me with a carboard tube (if you really want to know why, go to www.penny-arcade.com) but I was too busy laughing at his hiccups to notice.

I better get back to work, but until next time, wear sunscreen and try and get mugged by people with hiccups - it's more entertaining that way.

-Fin-

Audio Galore

2006-04-23T21:56:00.000+10:00

It's tomorrow that Brisbane will once again be graced by my presence. Pah, who am I kidding, Brisbane couldn't care if I was there or not :) However, I shall be back in the capital of Queensland tomorrow night, ready to do some good. By that I mean homework; I have a couple of assignments due this week.

A big thanks must go out to Mark Myers - he's a member of the newly named band Sleeping in Trains - the next big thing methinks. However that's not what the thanks is for, Mark was kind enough to lend me over 7 GB of recorded audio of the band, so that I can practice mastering. For a person who doesn't have a band of his own to record and precious little studio time remaining at QUT, this is a Godsend. Plus it's all recorded in a format understandable only by a program called Logic, so I'll get a chance to learn about that program too.

Mmmm... 7 GB...

This holiday has really done me good, I've got some ideas for compositions again, and I'm all set to come back to Bris and spruce up the apartment. Should be good. Aaron, get set for cleaning this Saturday arvo.

The main melody line from Teardrop by Massive Attack:
C- -C-G-C-F-C-F-G
C- -C-G-C-F-C-F-C

Did you know that some turtles breathe through their bottoms?

Also visited the church that Mark Myers goes to - it's called Lifegate, and has been in the transition between an attractional (relatively traditional) church into a missional church. A missional church takes a different form to what people are used to - the best thing is to read about it at http://www.emergingchurch.info/ and click on "Beginners Guide" over on the right.

It's really interesting and ...challenging, and quite possibly might be where God is calling quite a few people that I know in the next few years. Who would have ever thought that the shape of an evolving church would take the power of church growth out of the hands of those controlling the programmes and put it in the hands of misfits, sinners and trouble-prone humans? Wait a sec... that formula sounds familiar...

I guess the main thought on church I can offer is that a church that grows is one whose congregation owns their faith - they don't just do things because they're told to; They've examined all the things 0f faith critically and determined that Christianity is the way to go. The reason that this church will grow is because these people not only know the grace of God deeply but also realise that this love is made complete in reciprocation. These people hear that small voice whispering to them what God wants them to do. They hear this voice, they listen, do, and are swept up in the grand adventure that is serving God and thus one another.

I guess I write this because at Lifegate one of the questions asked was, 'You have a dream where you meet Jesus face to face. Where does this meeting take place? What does Jesus say?'

To me a picture came of me beaten, bleeding on the ground. Jesus comes down to me, and says, "You know what to do". I'm not sure if I know what that means yet, written down it seems quite harsh but in my mind I didn't notice it, Jesus' voice was so full of compassion.

So over to you: You have that dream. Where is it? What does He say to you?

-Fin-

A Millimetre? We'll use that in like, a morning

2006-04-19T17:58:00.000+10:00

Today... sooooo much rain. It still hasn't stopped. Literally hasn't stopped raining heavily all day. In Brisbane, it pours this hard for maybe five minutes, then drizzles for another hour and stops.

Went shopping in Cairns Central, met up with a friend of mine named Mel for lunch (I owed her a sushi lunch) and talked about stuff in general. She's getting married later on this year, and she plus her soon-to-be-hubby just bought a house :D

Went to see Ice Age 2 in the afternoon, so basically spent the whole day inside Central, enjoying all its shopping-mall goodness. Ice Age 2 wasn't as bad as I was expecting, making me laugh out loud at some points. Just don't go expecting much and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Heh, I'm realising that this isn't really a deep, philosophical post, but I'll continue anyway.

Went to HMV, used a gift voucher I got from my credit card points :) Got some Anime, and also a CD by Massive Attack called Collected. I've decided that their style of music is where I'd like to head... this is of course a tentative statement by me which can be retracted at anytime. On this CD is their immortal song, teardrop. You know, the one with the filmclip of the baby in the womb :S.

I just realised that I didn't tell you about Monday. On Monday, we went with some old friends, Alicia and Travis Clark to Port Douglas to have breakfast with the birds. For those of you unfamiliar with this tourist attraction, it's a service the Rainforest Habitat puts on - you have a beautiful buffet breakfast in the middle of an aviary, and all the birds, including ducks, lorikeets, parrots etc all come and hassle you for your food. It's brilliant, and then you get to walk around the park afterwards, feeding kangaroos, seeing koalas etc for awhile.

Hope everyone's going well, wherever in the world you mad folks are.

-Fin-

Singin' in the Rain

2006-04-18T11:23:00.000+10:00

Well, friends are back from AGMF, Jess's family's back from camping, everyone's back in Brisbane but me & Jess, we're up in Cairns, with rain coming down all around us.

Heheh, by the way, if you want to tease her about something, tease her about the fact that she's now playing mario party at any chance she gets - she has crossed over to the dark side and become a geek/nerd/thing. Anyway, I should probably get onto posting about other stuff.

Cairns is going well in lieu of the cyclone, apparently there was only one day or so that people were inconvenienced by the wind and stuff. Innisfail was really badly hit, so the hype that was given to how bad things are there is totally warranted - if you get a chance to give some money, please do, the people there really need it.

It's been great seeing old friends and everything, I really do appreciate being able to come up here to Cairns every now and again and touch base with people who consider me part of their family - my church, my friends and their families. The only thing that's been hampering things to do in Cairns (but I love it) is that it's been raining almost non-stop since we got here. The only time it didn't rain was Sunday morning, when we got up at 5:30 to get ready for the Easter Sunrise Celebration service on the esplanade, which was really cool.

Apparently all of this rain we're getting is due to the second cyclone which was following Larry - it's north of Cooktown, just creating a giant low all around these parts. Today's a real 'stay-indoors' day, with buckets just being thrown down from the heavens, and trust me, when the heavens throw buckets, they're gold buckets with silver handles, capable of holding several hundred litres. So later on we're gonna go rent some movies and then sit around watching them with some friends... It seems me and jess have come to cairns just to end up doing what we do down in brissie :P

-Fin-

What type of food art thou?

2006-04-15T09:45:00.000+10:00

A question was posed to me recently - what type of food am I?

I've put much thought into this ponderance, and so I've written down my chain of thinkance so that you might gain an insight into my brain.

At first I thought I might be a sugar cane stalk - just like everyone else on the outside, but still sweet on the inside. I thought that would be silly, its too simple.

Then I thought I might be like a choc chip biscuit - rough on the outside with some sweet spots, but if you let me hang around long enough I'll be sweet and chewable. Then I thought that perhaps chewable wasn't the best descriptor for me.

I thought of something like Chai Tea - exotic smelling, but takes people to places they've never imagined. Or was that drugs... I can never differentiate between the two. Anyway, I thought that'd be silly as well.

Then I thought, well, why not combine the three? So I decided my food is Tea and Biscuits - I'm a full english morning tea. Sweet, filling, desirable, yet decidedly plain. Of course I have no affiliation with the cucumber sandwiches cos they're gross.

*-*-*

Actually all of this trollop above is just silly - I'm really an everlasting gobstopper with a gooey centre. Stick with me, I'll show you many many different flavours, but to see the real me you have to wait until the end.

Oh and by the way I'll be up in Cairns for the next 10 days :D

-Fin-

Apologies & the Future

2006-04-13T10:26:00.000+10:00

To all my loyal blog-readers,

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry for not posting enough; Enough that your lives can be enriched on a day to day basis by inane paragraphs about my thoughts and actions.

I'm sorry for not updating my movie list; You have a right to check to see if you can agree with my taste in movies, enough that if you want to see a movie you could check on my site to see whether it's worth it or not.

I'm sorry that I have chosen to put my university studies above blogging - this is against the natural order of things and shall be rectified soon. The Blog is, and will be my top priority.

Let us now look forward to an age of true blogdom, wherein the small and large blogs alike will be loved and nurtured by their owners, becoming a true embodiment of Blogtopia.

Bloggers Unite!

-Fin-

Muso - for real?

2006-04-10T09:48:00.000+10:00

Well this is actually what the last post was meant to be about but I didn't get to finish it properly. It's been a bit busy, but I'm loving every minute of it - Music rocks. Haha, yes its a bad bad pun.

I've been spending lots of time with music friends in the studio, last thursday night did an all-nighter so that we could spend 1-5am in the studio recording. Got a reasonably good sound out of an MS mic config, using a Neumann KT 185 (I think...) and a Rode Classic II, so I was happy :D

If you want to see the latest "composition" experiment, where I've kind of made a song out of the Batman Begins movie - go to my purevolume site. I have to apologise for the cheesy drums, but its the only part of the song that didn't come directly from the movie's sound.

Apart from that, I'm getting ready to come back to Cairns from the 15th of April to the 24th, so Matt, I'll be dropping into say hi :)

-Fin-

Muso, apparently

2006-04-06T09:07:00.000+10:00

I haven't blogged in awhile, but more than other people :) Hope everyone's going well, if I haven't talked to you in awhile, post up how you're doing :)

Another laugh

2006-03-29T09:13:00.000+10:00

Just had a phone call: "Can I just get the location of Room TBA? It says here that this workshop's being held in Room TBA..."

I waited until the call was over before I cracked up laughing.

-Fin-

Old people are funny :)

2006-03-27T11:43:00.000+10:00

I just got off the phone with an elderly lady, she sounded great :) I picked up the phone, said hello, and she launched into saying:
"Now hopefully you can help me, I want to continue on learning. I'm sick to death of sitting around doing nothing. Can you help me?"
I smiled, and then helped her with telling her how to apply to QUT.

-Fin-

Reference

2006-03-27T10:21:00.000+10:00

Heylo again, for a more indepth look at what's going on with me - please refer to Geoff's blog: http://blogginbro.byethost11.com/

Currently it's the second post from the top, but that may change :) The top two posts there are really great too.

-Fin-

Bout Time

2006-03-27T09:17:00.000+10:00

Hey, thought I'd better update considering it's been a while. It's been a weird week or so, feeling far from God and weird about life in general. It's been very busy, but now we've postponed the computer course until beginning semester 2, it's a huge weight off my shoulders.

I've also started reading "What's so amazing about grace?" which actually lives up to my expectations of it - I've heard alot of friends talk about it and it's great to finally read it.

Anyway I better get back to work, it's busy this week from people who forgot/didn't know to fill in their Commonwealth Assistance Notice, which means that they're discontinued from their course.

-Fin-

Drunk people are amusing

2006-03-17T20:04:00.000+10:00

That was funny :) I was walking to I103 to lock up for the night, and as I passed the library, this indian looking guy came up to me and started talking in a scottish/american accent. He was obviously really really drunk, but apparently he remembered me from Carseldine. I supposedly helped him with his password and taught him to redirect email. In his mind, that made me the "best bloke in the world", cos now he teaches others to do the same. I'm actually quite happy, even if it is a drunk guy, someone's appreciated my help :)

Oh and before you think i was being negligent, I asked him if he needed a cab and he's like "no mate, I'm cool, give me some credit, I'm cool, I can get where I'm goin, I'm cool". I hope he got home alright.

-Fin-

The List

2006-03-17T19:16:00.000+10:00

I'm sure you're all sick of me whining about stuff, so I thought I'd just put up a general list of things I'm focussing on at the moment. Please put up your own lists on your own blogs, or in teh comment section, or put a link in the comment section to your own list.

Things taking up my attention atm:
-Uni
----Have to write a short story by next friday
----Trying to work out a drum solo in 7/8. It's funky, but difficult to wrap my head around
----trying to compose stuff for simulation, a group activity which is compulsory for my course and is going to have a gig at the powerhouse on the 3rd April. More details to come sometime...
----nice n easy 1500 wrd essay to ease us into KMB110
----have to start thinking about a folio and everything else for KMB007...
-Work - Computing Helpdesk
---- I work every friday night 4-9 at the moment. This is where I am atm!
-Work - QUT information services
---- 3864 2000 - I work here three days a week.
-Work - Student Computer Beginnings
----Project manager of the Student Computing Beginnings Course - it's finally getting underway, but that means I have to take care of a whole lotta things in the meantime, including finishing writing everything properly :)
----I have to organise employment contracts, room bookings, etc etc.
----It'll hopefully look good on my resume.
-Student Life
----Trying to Organise socials. Interesting.
-Church
----Still on the music team and the organisation team for the night service... might need to scale back a bit here

Other than that life is about as busy as I like it, I'm having a bit of fun and time is flying. So what do your lists look like?

-Fin-

Yermits anyone? Anyone Yermits?

2006-03-13T08:23:00.000+10:00

For the promotional video for Connexions camp, containing Yermits, please visit here:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5321315686675976508

-Fin-

Good day

2006-03-10T17:32:00.000+10:00

G'day.

I'll be back at workin at the Student computing Helpdesk in April, after being at the QUT Information Services call centre out at Carseldine for over two months now. It's been fun and well paid, but I'm gonna be glad to get back to just going to uni after the end of march. This kind of mis-matching between Carseldine and Kelvin Grove is draining me.

Tonight I'm just working a shift, 4-9pm at the helpdesk to help out. It's been hell for the helpdesk - the new printing system, which was implemented on Monday the 27th of February, didn't work until that Friday - the 3rd. Even then, it only worked half the time until about yesterday, the 9th of March. On top of that, we have had to merge three different services into one - the Staff Helpdesk, our phone service and our desk service into one integrated help service area. Yeah, it sucks as much as it sounds.

Plus today, H:/, which is the network drive for Education Students went down - there are about 3 separate assignments, big 'uns, due in today or tomorrow. One student's been yelling at me about it every time she walks past, and she's an international student which means she gets to pay about $8000 for this semester. Anyway. She just went past then and asked me to call her when it comes back up, she gave me a number etc. [sigh]

The main point I'm trying to make is that QUT has majorly stuffed up this year. Yes Aaron, I'm sure UQ would have done it at least 10 times better [rolls eyes]. However the things that have stuffed up are all behind the scenes - mistakes made by managers who are on 6 month contracts who don't care about QUT or the students at all. And we, the helpdesk workers on the front line, get the flack for it.

So yeah, that's my whinge for the century, hope it wasn't too draining. I'll get onto more uplifting topics now :)

Music rocks. We had a class today where we got to perform a percussion piece we had 20 mins to come up with, which was cool. Anyway, it went off, so that was great. However the amount of time I have to put into music is alot more than I was expecting... Business really is just a 'go to uni, get your degree, get out' kinda degree. This is a 'you're a full time student, and we'll give you contact hours to suit', which is great. I'm just gonna have to re-evaluate other commitments, and just keep in mind that I'm at uni to be in my course. I think that'll be the best way to shine God, as I'll be making much better friends with people in my course than I would ever get to in Business or IT.

-Fin-

How much sleep can a sleeper sleep

2006-03-08T08:12:00.000+10:00

I wish I was asleep right now.

Anyway. Two things I wanna blog, cos that's all that can be held in my memory right at this minute.

I'm really looking forward to this job finishing, not cos I don't like it or anything, but because it'll mean I get to sleep in.

And:

Has anyone out there ever had to work with people that you think don't like you? Whether it's paranoia or fact, I'd like to know the details. Commentaro!

-Fin-

Phblergh

2006-03-07T22:20:00.000+10:00

Hmm...

I know my busy-ness will only get moreso as I get older, but hey, I like it :) Just finished worship leading, but I still have to finish off these Student Life promotional stuff for dinners for eight.

Also I thought I'd mention that finally, with the hell-on-earth-for-QUT technical staff that was week one semester one 2006 finally over, my supervisor can help me out with the computer training course and get it on the road!!

So I'm going to be doubly busy with uni stuff, work stuff x 2 and Student Life stuff.

Yeeehah :)

*happy dance*

-Fin-

AAaaargh

2006-03-06T12:59:00.000+10:00

Okay.

So I like... just got busy for a couple of weeks :) I'll explain.

Uni began.

Work here at the main helpline of QUT has been cut back to about three days a week, so I don't have the bountiful, boring amount of time in front of the computer that I used to. However, the 'trial' or whatever that my last post was referring to was a 3 day fast, which I eventually got through. On the first day, I succumbed to having a free lunch :S so I started again, and after 12pm on that day I lasted three days :)

Twas good. In my brief experience, it did bring me closer to God, I think because I was sacrificing something for Him. However it doesn't solve the underlying self-control issues... anyway that's another talk for another time, and perhaps not with you :P

Then I didn't post on the blog cos I was getting things ready for week one. O-week was one of those weeks where although I was working 8-4, I still had something on every night of the week. :S The only one I can remember tho was Nicole's 21st bday party/housewarming for the giant household. Happy bday Nicole! Happy house day peoples of 25 Connor St, Kangaroo Pt!

Then there was church, then week one began. Went to homegroup for the first time on monday night, twas good. We're doing revelation this year, and each of us takes turns to lead it. I scored chapter two (high five for no hard stuff :) ). Before home group tho, went to a lecture where I realised that I knew everything they were going to teach :D since it's too late to apply for credit for it tho, I just settled in for a bludge subject. It sounds like a cool subject anyway, Intro to Multimedia Technology. Tuesday went to nightlife, which was cool, and I got asked to do worship leading the next week, which I accepted. I have trouble figuring out how much I can handle in one week! :D Tis all good, I enjoy it anyway.

Yeah, Week One was the kind of week where after the first couple of days, it started raining, and I got lazy :) well, not lazy, but sick and stuff. Plus, I wanted to stay home and experiment with After Effects - a program which lets you do video post production (Blue screen, fancy effects etc). Wednesday I called in sick, and sat back with videos and stuff. I mean, it was my birthday, and I wanted to push away the thought that I was no longer young out of my mind (By the way, for those of you over 20 without a sense of humour, that was a joke ;P ). That night Aaron Sloper, a friend of ours and me went into the valley, up into the club aptly named the Zoo to a concert of a band we've liked for a while now called Gyroscope. Their most recent album was produced by Mark Trombino, who did Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World and The Living End. That was pretty darn good. It was my first live gig since Muse, which was ... 2004 :S Too long ago.

Anyway, Thursday I also called in sick so I could sleep in and watch videos and try and work out what to do for Worship Leading at Nightlife. That night went over to Jess's, where her mum cooked me a birthday dinner (Awesome cheescake for dessert) and then we crashed there so we could sleep in on Friday. Friday... what happened friday? Nothing.

Saturday - this was quite full. Drove around to various wreckers to try and find a replacement left taillight for my magna. Can't find any in the city of Brisbane. Grrr.... Drive back home, Nicola comes over with some raw footage that she, Tim Muller and a group of Student Lifer's shot on Friday. This was destined to become the Connexions promotional video. You can download this h_e_r_e(coming soon), but beware, it's not for those without broadband, cos it's 31.9mb.

Then after we edited stuff and made it all good-like, we went to the QUT River Cruise (on the citycat). It was a wonderful success of sorts, with lots of people turning up for what was, without a doubt, the most un-glamorous social event of the year. We caught the citycat up to Bretts Wharf, stood around next to the road for 5 mins, then back to Bulimba, where we walked about 300m past construction zones to a fish&chips shop. Had dinner in a "park" (someone's front yard) and then caught the citycat back to South Bank where we had ice cream. I hope the old adage of "you don't need anything fancy, just put people together and let them mix" holds, otherwise it might be the worst social event of the year. We shall see what people say about it next week.

Then there was sunday, which was just the normal go to church, go have lunch, go shopping, shop some more, go back to Aaron Melvold's place to play mario party and forza motorsports. Pete Deane, this macho mechanic was very excited about collecting more stars than anyone else in mario party. He even did a happy dance.

Then night service happened, learnt a bit more about the PA at our church, had very judgemental thoughts about the current relationship between PA operators and the musicians (There isn't any communication, it's like a dysfunctional family) and then went to maccas for a ridiculously unhealthy dinner.

And thus leads us to today. I'm tired. I need sleep. Sleeeeeeeeeep.

Are you happy now!??! HAPPY?!?!? I think, therefore I post. Ergo!

-Fin-

Officially stoopified

2006-02-20T08:53:00.000+10:00

Well its now official, I can ride a bike ;)

I got my license on Saturday, RE, so I can only ride up to and including a 250cc bike. Which is still fun. Eventually if I get a bigger bike I'll just have to get an R license.

So... what's going on in my head?

I guess I'm realising I still need to grow spiritually. (Duh) But I guess this might be the first time I feel equipped to take the necessary steps...? I don't know really how to articulate it. I think I might need some kind of retreat where it's just me & God. I really need to re-orient my priorities and make certain that nothing is before me and God. Otherwise, my potential is stunted and I don't want that with God.

I'm currently learning alot of stuff, so stay tuned and I'll update you in about 3 days.

-Fin-

What I'm Going to Do Yesterday

2006-02-16T11:39:00.000+10:00

Well yesterday was pretty cool, I rang up several places and organised stuff.

Some of the stuff included booking myself in for my Motorcycle license this Saturday, so that's cool.
I also rang a map place cos I wanted a map of Brisbane, and found out that the only map to contain every single street in Brizzy is 2m square and costs $259. The one I'm getting, a full map of brisbane's major roads and suburbs is 1mx0.7m, and costs $30 laminated.

Hmm... today's hub meeting, and also the socials meeting is today as well :) fun for all. Anyway...

-Fin-

Colours Stink

2006-02-15T15:06:00.000+10:00

This stinks. I've found out heaps of interesting things in this job, but this one affects me, and I don't like it.

When I graduate, I'll be graduating from Creative Industries and Education. In other words, the two sashes will be the pink one, and the green one.

Life isn't fair.

-Fin-

Vah Lend Tyne

2006-02-15T14:50:00.000+10:00

Apparently, there's another holiday which is celebrated on the 14th of February - Singles Awareness Day (SAD). Singles congregate together in public places or in blog comment aisles and commiserate their status through greetings such as "Happy SAD!". Wikipedia deems it self-deprecating humour.

The association of the middle of February with love and fertility dates to ancient times. In the calendar of Ancient Athens, the period between mid January and mid February was the month of Gamelion, which was dedicated to the sacred marriage of Zeus and Hera.

The first recorded association of St. Valentine's Day with romantic love was in the 14th century in England and France, where February 14 was traditionally the day on which birds paired off to mate. This belief is mentioned in Geoffrey Chaucer's Parlement of Foules (1381). It was common during that era for lovers to exchange notes on this day and to call each other their "Valentines". A 14th century valentine is said to be in the collection of the British Library. It is probable that many of the legends about St. Valentine were invented during this period.

There is no mention of Hallmark.

-Fin-

Back in the Grind

2006-02-13T09:37:00.000+10:00

Well we're all back at work, and unfortunately that means I won't be going to anything tomorrow :( Hope all you munchkins have fun, and don't do anything too over the top. Happy valentines day for tomorrow!

-Fin-

Ideas are Abuzz

2006-02-09T20:07:00.000+10:00

Okay. After the recent Leadership camp for Student Life, I'm assuming that most of us are still abuzz on the zeal of possibility - that is, we can almost taste the difference that we can make in this world.

Now for those, more jaded of us, who may be thinking that this is yet another youthful venture, I would remind them that on nothing less than the hope of God within us do we build our faith. Hope for a better future and the passion to grasp it are two qualities I believe youth have that other generations are sorely lacking in.

Does this make sense at all? I hope it does, but in case it doesn't, here's a summary:

Now is the time to let go of the reservations that this world and previous failure have forced upon you. Youth, stand up.

So now with that premise, I want to officially put a flag in the sand and claim this year as the one in which we don't keel over and die a spiritual death - whether it be to sin, tiredness, pride, and all other hindrances to the fruit of the spirit.

For some reason, I've been dreaming big dreams again. Why is this significant? I've spent the better part of a year hesitating, relinquishing passion to a jaded facade. I'm glad that I did spend the time that I did, because now I can truly say that my feet are on the ground, well and truly. Spending the amount of time that I did holding yourself back will do that to you. So now is the time to open the gates. I'm letting these dreams come out again, so that I can nurture them, put them down on paper and work them out.

I need you to help. This isn't any small request - I'm letting you see the visions on the inside of my eyelids, and asking you to help me refine them - to be a part of the sharpening process.

First and foremost, as Socials Director of Student Life this year, I need your help for the first social - we're all ready to organise it, we just need an idea. Nothing too flash, cos we've only got 4-5 weeks. It needs to be extremely neutral, something which a Christian would feel comfortable inviting their atheistic, agnostic, muslim and hindu friends to without batting an eyelid. It needs to be affordable, and it needs to be God inspired. Please pray about it, and wait upon Him for guidance.

Second, I'm going to put up some ideas I've had about general Student Life activities.

Trevor Gudenswager, QUT Student Life's president for this year, spoke about expanding beyond our square of influence that is QUT. One thought that's been going around and around my head ever since the quiet time on the third day of camp is that of a Praise & Worship night, done extremely well. I have an idea of the layout of the night songwise, but what I need help with is the practical side. Are there people out there who have a knowledge of the technical side of things - who know how we would go about having a live video feed of a worship band onstage and would be willing to oversee this side of things. Are there people who want to get involved in Stage Design out there.

For those who ask why we need such extravagance, I would say that I can empathise with you. I was struggling with the dilemma of the materialistic nature of so many churches in the developed world. However something came to me a while ago, and while it may not answer all of your questions, it helped me with mine. I recently went through a period where I visited various friend's churches, learning about how they go about things. At one church, the pastor spoke of his desire to be at the cutting edge of how to reach people. He talked about sacrificial offering of money, time, possessions and talent in the pursuit of being relevant and real. At another church, the verse came into my head, "I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." (Luke 16:9) This is a much misunderstood phrase. The way I see it, it's following a common theme through Jesus' teachings - don't focus on the temporal, influence the eternal. Do not store up treasures on this Earth. On one hand, if you see a brother in need, give to him. I think this applies to the spiritually poor as well as the materially poor. All these teachings go hand in hand.

If we have a worship night which is done well, there will be some things that people will call extravagant. Yet if we are bringing people into a place where they can connect with God in a way that they never have before, perhaps for the first time, I think that we should be pursuing that. As for making sure that they don't have to come to a big even to connect with God, I think that's where things like discipleship and small groups come in.

So what are your thoughts on this year. Fill up the comments section, write novels and theses in there. I want your God-given ideas to pour out, hold nothing back :)

-Fin-

So very very cool

2006-02-04T14:11:00.000+10:00

Pandora is a very cool thing. Read about it, then enjoy.

-Fin-

Mergh

2006-02-03T15:22:00.000+10:00

Okay, okay, I've finally gotten around to starting to fulfil my promise of keeping the Student Life Blog updated once a week.
.
..
...
....

So what if it's just a joke?!?! It's updated isn't it?!?!? The nerve of some people...

-Fin-

Someone else's dream

2006-02-03T11:33:00.000+10:00

Hey hey, I'm being unoriginal again. Nic's blog asked the question: What would be your ideal career? Since I have several and didn't want to write a novel in her comments section, I decided to write the answer in my own blog.

Option no 1: Rock Star

This is the most unlikely of the bunch, so I've put it first. To get this to work, I'd have to gain stage presence, a killer bod, and a band.

Option no 2: Film Director

Still not likely, but less so than option no 1. To get to this option however, I would have to first start off in Option no 3 or 4.

Option no 3: Sound Designer / Composer for film

This is where I wouldn't mind ending up. You know all those cool "vvvjjeew, vvjeeeeew" noises that lightsabers made in Star Wars? A sound designer came up with those by waving a microphone above an exposed CRT. A guy named Walter Murch is perhaps the Godfather of sound designers - considering he did the sound on the Godfather, and also for Apocalypse Now. He's received several oscars.

Option no 4: Film Scriptwriter

Charlie Kaufman is an example of what I'd like to be. Of course, not the neurotic weird kind of Charlie Kaufman, but the genius scriptwriter, yes.

Option no 5: Composer

Yes, I would lower myself to writing pop songs for better looking people to sing. I get the royalties anyway, and while they're languishing about the effect of aging on plastic surgery, I'll be happily living off their image.

Option no 6: Teacher

I would like to teach one day, it just seems to be something that comes relatively naturally to me, and I enjoy it. I would like to one day guide a large orchestra to victory in some competition or something. Or just give a big band a head start into the world.

Option no 7: Traveller

This isn't really a job per se, more of like what I will be spending my time doing when I'm retired. I want to see so much of the world... but that deserves its own entry in this blog. More... later perhaps.

Option no 8: Circus Performer

Not really.

Option no 9: IT Professional

My least favourite option. I've spent enough time in front of computers in the last couple of years to be sick of them already. I'll do it if I have to (it's big money if you know where to look) but I'd rather be travelling or making music.

Option no 10: Pastor

This I guess is more of a dream... in that I still feel that I have a lot within myself and how I live my life to work out before I consider it. I think this is a distinct possibility due to my Public Speaking abilities, but this is a position which requires more than qualifications. I believe that it requires a certain degree of commitment to moral purity, and a track record that shows that you're continuing to work towards knowing and imitating Jesus Christ every day. I'm currently unsure as to whether if, under close examination, my track record would be able to be passable - I know His grace covers all things, but I'd rather wait until I'd attained victory over some rather large sin in my life to do something large like Pastor a church.

Well I guess that's about it, I've listed all that my mind can think of, from the dreams to the mundane to the absurd. So now it's your turn - go to Nic's blog or put it in these comments as to what your dream career would be. Comments in my blog can also be on the topics suggested by my careers, like the pastor option.

-Fin-

Conspiracy Theories 2

2006-02-02T15:22:00.000+10:00

Hmm... it's not paranoia when people are out to get you, innit. I got an email this morning which contained an article about September 11, and how it's pretty much a hoax insofar as what America tells the world happened.

Immediately I think, what a load of croc, and go to move to the next email, but I thought, why not, I may as well read it. So I did, and it wasn't too bad, and it pointed to this website http://911research.wtc7.net/ . This site actually wasn't that bad - the author seems down to earth (for a conspiracy writer) and he's prepared to admit that if proof comes to the contrary of any of his opinions, he'll stand down.

So that was my reading digest today, apart from another book (Aaron I found it on your desk and picked it up, I got hooked) by Tony Campolo called Speaking My Mind. If you haven't read it yet, go out and get it from koorong or word, it's a really hard hitting book.

So until next time, make sure you fill up the comments section with all the conspiracy theory (from illuminati to ufos) trivia you can find over this great expanse of the net. I'll be looking as well - for skeletons in the closet, ufos in the sky and dead mafia in the barrels in my backyard ;)

-Fin-

A cupla kwoats

2006-02-01T14:55:00.000+10:00

If god is inside us than I hope he likes fajitas, coz that's what he's getting.

Every 12 seconds somewhere on this earth there is a woman giving birth to a child. She must be found and stopped.

A hotdog feeds the hand that bites it.

I locked my coathanger in the car. Lucky I had my key.

The trouble with work is, it's so daily.

They cant fire me. Slaves have to be sold.

My Karma ran over your Dogma.

I spilled spot remover on my dog. He's gone now.

There are two times I feel stress. Day and night.

My wife made me join a bridge club. I jump off next Tuesday.

Give blood. Play hockey.

FOR SALE. Parachute. Only used once. Never opened. Small stain.

100% of studies show that if you dont eat, you'll get hungry.

Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

In the force, if Yoda is so strong, construct a sentence with words in the proper order why can't he?

Energiser Bunny arrested. Charged with battery.

The Three Rings of Marriage... The engagement ring. The wedding ring, and The suffering.

I had a lovely evening. Unfortunately this wasn't it.

Back inda hood

2006-01-31T09:23:00.000+10:00

Now that I'm back in Brisbane, I've taken my study back up - that is, the study of film :) Last week I sat down to Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Fantasia 2000 and Fantasia. I just wanted to see what had happened to the old favourite. I'm not sure which one I prefer. The newer one is quite cool though. Indiana Jones is still as good as the day it was made. That trilogy is timeless.

On saturday night I watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp (Did I just hear a collective female sigh...?) and I was suitably impressed. Originally I thought it was a satirical jab at Michael Jackson, but it's turned into a great movie on its own right, and it promotes family to boot. The new oompa loompa songs were rather bland, but I guess nothing can compare to the LCD trip of little orange men dancing around while words bubble into existance onscreen. By the way, everyone is right -the new oompa loompa is creepy.

Last night I remembered one of the films I've always wanted to see but never got to - The Graduate. Now I can see why this film was so universally lauded. It's a biting satire - it explores the concept that was just coming onto the social scene at the time - that is, life's meaning falls in getting everything I want. I think the film painted a great picture of showing that this concept, taken to its full end, means that we not only take things from other people, but we can start taking other people - and we can take these people away from our friends and even our children. I'd recommend this film for anyone, because apart from an extremely brief scene with flashes of female toplessness, it doesn't have any foul language that I can remember, and it really is one of the best films ever made. Biting satire, great soundtrack and memorable characters.

Hmm... I think i've spoken enough. Go & have some anzac bikkies or something ... oh wait, you must perform a risk assessment first. :)

-Fin-

The perks

2006-01-30T10:50:00.000+10:00

This workplace, the main helpline at QUT, just seems to keep getting better. Today we're celebrating one of the casual staff members becoming an Australian Citizen - by having a morning tea with Australian themed things like macadamia biscuits, lamingtons, timtams & pavlova. I'm really enjoying my work.

=D

-Fin-

Aaron, if you're out there, I'm sorry mate =D

2006-01-28T17:15:00.000+10:00

Hey Aaron, if you're out there, I hope you read my blog, I've sent this to your email too, but yeah. I got the message on the answering machine from the guy you're staying with, but I didn't know your replacement mobile number so that I could tell you what was going on.

For all you out there who are slightly confuzzled, Aaron Sloper, my housemate, is currently down in Melbourne. On the day he left, I came home at about 5pm, and checked the answering machine. There was a message from the guy he was staying with, a guy i think named Ben Gibson. Ben had been waiting for Aaron since 4:00 (Melbourne's 5pm) it was now 4:40 (5:40), there was no sign of Aaron and Ben had to go to work. So he rang our home in the hope that I would be able to contact Aaron, because Aaron hadn't given Ben his replacement mobile number (Aaron's old fone got broke) and Ben couldn't contact him.

Good luck Aaron, have fun in Melbourne :D

-Fin-

Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks

2006-01-28T17:03:00.000+10:00

Well well well. For once in my life in Brisbane I haven't been updating this thing every second day. Make that every day. I've started a new job, still at QUT, so I can safely say that I'm becoming institutionalised. It's at the main helpline at QUT, with better pay and lots of hours. The dream job, one might say.

This extra pay comes with extra responsibility - that is, the power to receive calls from the most annoying, silly and petty humans that Brisbane can throw at you. Now let's settle this. People are generally nice. They do some nice things every now and again. One lady in my new workplace (a wonderful little call centre out at QUT Carseldine) brings in cake twice a week, and good cake at that. Her husband is a gourmet cake delivery-person.

However there are some cases of humanity where a person becomes twisted and bitter, waiting for the ideal moment to take its revenge on the world. Such is the case of 72 year old Dorph Morstle. (Names have been changed to protect the not-so-innocent) This man has been through about three post graduate courses in as many years, and puts them all onto fee help. He's currently up to $18 000, and we're betting that he takes his debts to the grave. What really sets this guy apart, however, is his manner of dealing with QUT. His constant swearing and general inability to communicate without abusing the listener has resulted in his infamy within our call centre. All calls are to be immediately forwarded onto our supervisor.

Just today, back at my first job at the student computing helpdesk, I was presented with some more randomness... a lady just came up and asked both the librarian on duty and myself to be witnesses to her will. Tis interesting, because one day soon we might be contacted to ask, "Was this lady in her right mind...". I guess every new day is a chance to do something that you've never done before. It's just that some opportunities just jump out and grab you.

-Fin-

The New Year

2006-01-19T11:38:00.000+10:00

School starts next week. My brother's going into his final year of high school, and although this should freak me out - I mean, my little bro's gonna be out of school this time next year - I think change is slowly becoming the norm. No longer is there a feeling that the future is looming - I can almost see myself managing to cope with this gift God gave me called life :)

So hmm, what to share. I guess thoughts that have been going through my head recently are a good place to start.

I guess I've been finding myself wondering about what temptations to give into or not to. Whether its slacking off, eating, or more serious temptations like sin, there are always (seemingly) rational motivations in either direction. Generally when you give into a temptation though, it's for hedonistic reasons (if it feels good, why not do it). I slack off cos I'm lazy, I eat cos I like eating + I might be hungry, I give into sin because sin feels good in the short term. The only problem with giving into all of these things is that giving into things ...smooths the pathway, in a manner of speaking. Each time I give into eating, I make it easier for me to keep eating. That particular pathway is pretty much as smooth as it can get for me. What can I say, eating's good. But the topic of self restraint and self control has been on my mind, cos I don't tend to always exercise it. In some ways it does make logical sense not to exercise self restraint or control, but in a spiritual sense it is perfectly clear.

God asked us to put Him first in everything. To me, this means as a first priority above all other hardships and temptations. James 2:14-17 reads:

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

So if we say that God is above all trials and temptations, how is this extravagant statement proven? The only real way to prove that you put God first is to go through trials and temptations, and see what the result is. Will you profess God in not only your words but also your actions? That is the question.

Some people say that fasting is futile - a simple grab at attention from God when He's already given us everything (Jesus). I guess for me fasting is a couple of things rolled into one, but they're both completely the opposite of a cry for attention. Fasting tends to be an action which aids in focussing on God - not only are you saying, through actions, that God is more important to you than hunger & temporary good health, but during that time, whenever you get hunger pains, you're reminded that this time is meant to be God time. Anything that reminds and allows you to spend more time in prayer with God cannot help but produce spiritual fruit, just as plants grown with increased exposure to sunlight with the help of heat lamps grow much faster and stronger than other plants.

Many other religions rely heavily upon fasting as part of their faith. In Hinduism, fasting is a regular practice. Luqman, the wise once said, "When the stomach is full, the intellect begins to sleep. Wisdom becomes mute and the parts of the body restrain from acts of righteousness."

So yeah. What is everyone's opinions of fasting, self control and just general abstinence?

-Fin-

Meanderings

2006-01-15T12:53:00.000+10:00

That's about what my mind has been doing for the most part, just trying to figure out what's going on. Since the last post, Planetshakers has been and gone. It's been a while since I've had a mountaintop experience with God, and just after my return from Cairns is possibly the best time I could have asked for it.

As much as having such a great experience is so awesome, it kind of hurts all the more when you come back to society to find friends not as enthusiastic for God to change this world, and not passionate for the heart of God. I'm not saying that I wish everyone was enthusiastic, but I'm just sharing with you how the gap is taking its toll already.

I hope everyone's ready for a big year, cos it's shaping up to be one. At planetshakers there were a couple of speakers which asked the congregation to really think about the future, and what we think God is speaking to us about. How we think God is going to be moving in the various walks of life that we're in - whether its in uni or school or business or life in general.

Now for all my close friends, if I haven't told you the following info, it's probably just cos I haven't had the chance to talk to you much in person or whatever. But yeah, I found a couple of things that I'm pretty sure are from God, cos they're definitely not things I would think of just out of the blue. One was to get more involved in the organisation of my church - which I would never ever think of myself. It just popped into my head.

So yeah... Coming into this year I already feel a bit overloaded, with the change of course, taking up more responsibility in my church (when all I want to do is lighten the load, possibly even change churches) and yet I'm excited. The winds of change are blowing, even if they're blowing a pretty cliched tune, and it feels good to be where I'm at.

Sorry to make this such a long entry, but a brief overlook of what else has been happening: I went to GE (the people who provide finance for my car) and they gave me a final payout figure - the amount of money I would need to be rid of debt. It comes to exactly the amount I would get if I sold my car privately, so I'm happy about being able to be rid of debt. I also got a job for the next two months, until march, working in the main helpline at QUT. It's full time hours paid at casual rates, so I'm a happy chappy.

That's about it, hope the wait was worth it.

-Fin-

Harbourtown

2006-01-09T14:43:00.000+10:00

Okay peeps.

This is another post about the Harbourtown trip - It has been decided by the nearest-to-omniscient being (me) in the neighbourhood that it shall take place on the 20th day of the first month of 2006. That means you have eleven days to save up money.

Tell me if you're coming :P

-Fin-

I'm back, and I'm bad

2006-01-09T12:19:00.000+10:00

I'm back in Brisbane, folks. Hopefully there are still some people out there reading, but I'm beginning to doubt it. Meh.

Coming back was rather weird... the disjointed feeling happened again, but only two days after I arrived back. Anyway, I'm jumping ahead of myself, I'll tell you the stories I've told all my friends.

My flight back was a creche flight - i.e. >20 kids under the age of two, all screaming and crying the whole way. Every time I tried to take a nap, some kid would randomly let out a shrill cry and drag me back to consciousness. Evil little tykes.

Got back, went home to dump stuff and get ready to go to the Denny's, but I had to ride my motorbike. It's still just as fun as when I left it. Arrived at Jess's to surprise her, but there's a pattern I'm noticing with girls. They don't handle surprise well. There's two options that a guy can take:
- You build up to the surprise so much that they can guess what's coming, but they still love it anyway.
- You surprise them out of the blue, and it's such a surprise that it doesn't register - it's fried their brains and then they just giggle and then stay dumbfounded for the next couple of hours.

Jess chose the second womanly option. I stayed for dinner at the Denny's, then got carted off to a farewell party for Aaron. The next day, saw Narnia, and then went to visit Susie, who was housesitting, then after two hours of Gilmore Girls (I will deny that I ever watched that show) I went back home to Toowong.

This is where the disjointedness kicked in, it felt like things were closing in again, and I just kept of things to put on my to-do list. Eventually I promised myself that I wouldn't do any work until Monday, and so I eventually dropped off to sleep at about 1am. I think it was because of the coke that my mind wouldn't stop running.

Church was alright, might talk to you people out there in blogland in person if you ask me about it but yeah, it was alright, and then I went home intending to do work. I then remembered that I'd promised myself not to do work, so I watched scrubs for the rest of the afternoon. Now I'm back at work at the helpdesk with plenty of time to spare. It'll still take awhile to get back into the swing of things. But yeah. Disjointedness - tis a funny feeling, like reality isn't quite right - and your brain tends to shut down to try and avoid it.

So yes... a summary of what's been happening... I've come back. I hung out with the wonderful Jess. I watched Scrubs. And of course my mind's been having too many thoughts to actually put down on paper. So yes.

Have fun with the rest of your holidays, uni people! They're halfway over! Well, except for Pat. Sorry mate.

-Fin-

Beta testing

2005-12-26T14:47:00.000+10:00

Hey all you guys out there in student life (and even if you're not), poke your head around here and tell us what you think.

If that link doesn't work the address is http://studentlifequt.blogspot.com/

-Fin-

Christmas is a wonderful time for those on drugs...

2005-12-25T18:46:00.000+10:00

Merry Christmas, Ladies & Germs - I am definitely sad enough to be blogging on Christmas Day.

I'm slowly coming out of the drugged stupor of anaesthetic (btw a typo in my last post - it's a Maxillofacial surgeon, not a Maleofacial surgeon) which lasted Thursday and Friday, and now I'm just trying to get used to chewing with my front teeth, which apparently I'll be doing for weeks.

For Christmas I got a towel, lots of clothes vouchers (who's up for a shopping trip to Harbour Town! Put your name in comments now, but the trip will have to take place before the 27th of January) and the Star Wars version of Risk - Clone Wars version. I bought my brother Zoolander, Shrek 2 and The Incredibles dvd's. I got mum chocolate, dad a stress ball (he's a stock trader, nuf said) and I got them both a jigsaw puzzle of the great wall of china, cos they both want to travel there sometime.

So what did everyone else get for Christmas? What did everyone buy other people?

That's your mission for the comments section:

What you got for Christmas
What you bought other people for Christmas
If you're up for a trip to harbourtown, and can you bring a car

By the way!! A big happy birthday to a regular visitor to this blog, Mr Matt Miller, who today turns 21. Not only is he a Christmas baby, but now he's like 21. Just 10 more years until you're the age that Jesus was when He started His ministry... and Matt's already almost through ACOM - wow! Matt's almost as cool as Jesus!

-Fin-

Luke has lost wisdom... did he ever have any?

2005-12-22T13:44:00.000+10:00

My wisdom teeth are out - I was meant to be third on the list, but I was done in 6 minutes... imagine that - the maliofacial surgeon, Dr Brian Finn, made $925 in 6 minutes. Amazing. I thought it would take longer anyway. Twas funny, Jess thought I had been under for four hours, cos I didn't message her until 1pm :) She had been worried for no reason, I was home by 9:40am, had a nap and then watched a movie.

For the first three hours after I woke up, I spoke so ridiculously - my entire mouth was numb, my tongue felt fat and I couldn't pronounce my s's properly, tho I thpoke like thith. It was weird. At this moment, I can feel most of my mouth okay, although parts of it are still fuzzy and those bits are also numb. like the inside of the cheek next to the back teeth.

So tell me, how many readers out there have had their wisdom teeth out? Any teeth removed? Any funny stories, any gruesome stories?

Man, I'm hungry. These next few days of fasting don't look like being much fun.

-Fin-

Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts

2005-12-16T13:36:00.000+10:00

When I was on schoolies, I asked quite a few people if they'd ever heard of these. No one had, which I personally think is a crime. So here are a few of Jack Handy's deep thoughts - he was a guy who used to have a slot in Letterman's late show, and each show he'd spout one of these short jokes. So here, in a completely unoriginal post for your humour, is Jack Handy's deep thoughts.

It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.

One thing kids like is to be tricked. For instance, I was going to take my little nephew to Disneyland, but instead I drove him to an old burned-out warehouse. "Oh, no," I said. "Disneyland burned down." He cried and cried, but I think that deep down, he thought it was a pretty good joke. I started to drive over to the real Disneyland, but it was getting pretty late.

A good way to threaten somebody is to light a stick of dynamite. Then you call the guy and hold the burning fuse up to the phone. "Hear that?" you say. "That's dynamite, baby."

If I lived back in the wild west days, instead of carrying a six-gun in my holster, I'd carry a soldering iron. That way, if some smart-aleck cowboy said something like "Hey, look. He's carrying a soldering iron!" and started laughing, and everybody else started laughing, I could just say, "That's right, it's a soldering iron. The soldering iron of justice." Then everybody would get real quiet and ashamed, because they had made fun of the soldering iron of justice, and I could probably hit them up for a free drink.

Fear can sometimes be a useful emotion. For instance, let's say you're an astronaught on the moon and you fear that your partner has been turned into Dracula. The next time he goes out for the moon pieces, wham!, you just slam the door behind him and blast off. He might call you on the radio and say he's not Dracula, but you just say, "Think again, bat man."

Dad always thought laughter was the best medicine, which I guess is why several of us died of tuberculosis.

To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.

To me, clowns aren't funny. In fact, they're kind of scary. I've wondered where this started and I think it goes back to the time I went to the circus, and a clown killed my dad.

Sometimes when I feel like killing someone, I do a little trick to calm myself down. I'll go over to the persons house and ring the doorbell. When the person comes to the door, I'm gone, but you know what I've left on the porch? A jack-o-lantern with a knife stuck in the side of it's head with a note that says "You." After that I usually feel a lot better, and no harm done.

Instead of trying to build newer and bigger weapons of destruction, we should be thinking about getting more use out of the ones we already have.

Sometimes I think I'd be better off dead. No, wait, not me, you.

Even though I was their captive, the Indians allowed me quite a bit of freedom. I could walk freely, make my own meals, and even hurl large rocks at their heads. It was only later that I discovered that they were not Indians at all but only dirty-clothes hampers.

I think a good product would be "Baby Duck Hat". It's a fake baby duck, which you strap on top of your head. Then you go swimming underwater until you find a mommy duck and her babies, and you join them. Then, all of a sudden, you stand up out of the water and roar like Godzilla. Man, those ducks really take off! Also, Baby Duck Hat is good for parties.

There are plenty more, but for that you'll have to go online and search for them. Have fun!

-Fin-

These are a few of my favourite puns

2005-12-16T13:20:00.000+10:00

About a postmaster general:
"He was a man who was known to push the envelope..."

If a wolf can take down a deer from either flank, does that make him bambidextrous?

A man walks into a hardware store and asks if they have a tool for breaking up some hard ground. The shop assistant points to a row of suitable tools along the wall and replies: "Certainly sir, take your pick."

He had won every award and received every possible accolade: he was simply the best scarecrow ever. He truly was out standing in his field.

People who live beyond their means should act their wage.

I just saw a movie about some guy who had amazing revelations while eating his cereal. It was called Breakfast Epiphanies.

Resistance may be futile, but capacitance has potential.

I know a farmer who has 200 head of cattle. He thought there were only 196 until he rounded them up.

[Add your own in the comments!!]

-Fin-

Disconnectedness

2005-12-14T10:43:00.000+10:00

Feeling disconnected from a person is the sum total of how many questions you want to ask them, but can't.

Hmm... it's been what, a day? I'm in Cairns now. When I went to sleep after the first day I was here, I just had the weirdest feeling. I guess when you've spent a year in a place, you start to call it home. Suddeny when you come back to another place you also come home, you get a bit confused.

Luke's law of home:

The concept of 'home' in a person's mind cannot be embodied by two separate places at the same time. If this happens, confusion may result.

I've been trying to muster the motivation to do some work on the computer training course that I'm preparing for, but I've only managed to do a couple of pages in the last few days. Some interesting discussions have been had about the format of the course, so I guess I could call that constructive.

Meanwhile I forgot to bring up the piano composition I wrote specifically for my brother! I had it all ready to go and then forgot it at the last minute. Gotta love that. If anyone out there has a copy, would they be able to send it up here to me? Lol.

Hope everyone's enjoying their holidays, except pat. Pat, I hope you're enjoying summer semester (blergh).

-Fin-

Cairns pt 2

2005-12-12T19:34:00.000+10:00

Australia's premier regional city, Cairns is the international gateway into Tropical North Queensland, and carries with pride the mantle of safest tropical city in the world.

Residents of the area are also proud to be custodians of two of the world’s greatest natural treasures - the Great Barrier Reef and the Wet Tropics Rainforests. Both of these wonderful attractions are World Heritage listed, and there are very few places on Earth where two such treasures rest side by side.

Cairns International Airport is the nation’s sixth busiest in terms of international and domestic passenger movements, and the city also is rated the third most popular tourist destination in the country after Sydney and Brisbane. More than three million international and domestic passenger movements were recorded during 2003/04.

The city is a vital, cosmopolitan centre and its residents enjoy an enviable tropical lifestyle.
The peak tourism body for the region is Tourism Tropical North Queensland, which receives annual funding from Cairns City Council each financial year for promotion, marketing and convention marketing.

Some photos:

Aerial View of Cairns

Aerial view of the Esplanade Lagoon

Closeup of the Lagoon

Luke's Adoxography

My Faithful Friends

I'm free

I'm on youtube!!

Free Broadband!!

Still Catching Up

New Year ey...

A Weird Tale

First Draft

Absurd

Good reading

Random

151?

1 -- 5 -- 0

149th Post

I am busy

The Salmonella are swimming upstream

Update

Just a Taste...

The end of an era

IT IS HERE>>>

Coming Soon...

Adoxography 2.0 coming soon

Night Time Picnics

Does God want us to be rich?

Trust, and other misused verbs

Support Appreciated

Come one! Come all! Come... anyone?!

Punk Cabaret Is Freedom

Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth

A few good reads

Holidays!!

I'm so proud...

Co-inky-dink?

No Sleep = Work Gets Done

The Flip Side

Proposed Changes

Brain is AWOL

Hmm...

Does anyone know?

One for the Girls

Shark Fin Soup

The Brain Needs Out...

*Luke's Brain*

Drool

DisclaimerohwaitIjustlikediggingholes

Respite, Sweet Respite

I forgot a couple of things

I suppose I should update... [grumbles]

The other other white meat

Musings

Aaron's a geek

Guess the movie

Yay for really bad singing

A blog about aaron

Update... Kinda

When Drama isn't Enough

Warning

Argh! The Glowing Fires are coming to get us! Oh wait that's the sun...

Audio Galore

A Millimetre? We'll use that in like, a morning

Singin' in the Rain

What type of food art thou?

Apologies & the Future

Muso - for real?

Muso, apparently

Another laugh

Old people are funny :)

Reference

Bout Time

Drunk people are amusing

The List

Yermits anyone? Anyone Yermits?

Good day

How much sleep can a sleeper sleep

Phblergh

AAaaargh

Officially stoopified

What I'm Going to Do Yesterday

Colours Stink

Luke's Brain